Optical wavelet transform by the phase-only joint-transform correlator

• Published in: Applied optics (2004) Vol. 35; no. 17; p. 3117
• Main Authors: Erbach, P S, Gregory, D A, Yang, X
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 10.06.1996
• ISSN: 1559-128X
• DOI: 10.1364/AO.35.003117

A method is presented that performs the optical wavelet transform with liquid-crystal televisions as spatial light modulators operating only on the phase of the incident coherent light. The architecture is the joint-transform correlator, and the wavelets and the image to be transformed are encoded in the input plane of the system. The mathematical formalism describing the adaptation of the joint-transform correlator to the wavelet transform is given and extended to the operation of the phase-only joint-transform correlator. A new wavelet is described for two-dimensional image processing, and experimental results are presented for optical wavelet transforms done in real time by use of this wavelet in the phase-only joint-transform-correlator architecture. The analysis is extended to multiwavelet (multispectral) analysis by the joint-transform correlator, and simulation results are given. Finally experimental results with the phase-only joint-transform correlator applied to multi-wavelet analysis are presented.