The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 14, 1978
Filed:
May. 03, 1976
Richard G Clow, Phoenix, AZ (US);
Other;
Abstract
An optical parallel computing system in which modes of a multi-mode laser are coupled holographically. The bistable state of oscillation of individual modes is controlled by a saturable absorber placed in a part of the laser cavity which permits the control of each mode separately. A mode oscillates on the condition that the amount of optical energy coupled into that mode exceeds a threshold value. The amount of coupling between pairs of modes is dependent on the input data which is presented as a hologram. The output is read from the selection of modes which oscillate. The holographic part of the data processing system is a coherent optical computer which evaluates linear or nonlinear polynomial operators on the input data and can inject a proportional amount of energy into a mode, which then oscillates if the value of the operator exceeds a threshold. Holograms in the coherent optical computer store both data and program for the computing system. Applications include image processing and pattern recognition.