Abstract

In the field of image and information processing use of optical method is able to perform operations much faster than using electrical computer. However, the operations, which can be carried out in optical method, are restricted to treating with linear space-invariant problems by optical Fourier transform. In recent years, the optical general transform has been proposed to perform linear space-variant operations,, we have presented the theory^1,2 that a coherent optical system composed of holographic masks(HMs) can be designed to perform an arbitrary given linear transform, and some experimental verifications³ that the 8-sequence walsh transform and the 16-sequence Mellin transform were optically realized by a coherent optical system established with holographic masks. Now the experimental research on optical general transfers is successfully get into a step of performing a given transform in higher sequence (over 16-sequencs), that is more difficult to be done than in low one.

© 1988 Optical Society of America