Optical implementation of the wavelet transform by using a bacteriorhodopsin film as an optically addressed spatial light modulator

Abstract

An optical system utilizing the photoinduced dichroism in a bacteriorhodopsin film has been demonstrated for the optical implementation of wavelet transforms. The dichroism, induced by the image of a wavelet filter on a bacteriorhodopsin film leads to polarization rotation of the Fourier components of an image. The polarization-rotated Fourier components of an input scene are analyzed with a polarizer to give the wavelet transform components. The dichroism is induced with beams whose profiles are determined by wavelet filters in order to perform the optical wavelet transform.