Optical neural network

Abstract

An optical neural network which imitates a biological neural network, to provide an associative and/or pattern recognition function, is made of light emitting elements to represent an input neuron state vector, a correlation matrix which modulates light according to stored vector information, light receiving elements, an accumulator and a comparator to perform a threshold function. A stored vector closest to an input vector can be found from a large amount of information without increasing the system size by dividing the correlation matrix and the input neuron state vector with time division techniques, frequency modulation or phase modulation techniques. Positive and negative valves can also be provided with similar techniques.