An optical CNN implementation with stored programmability

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to provide a framework for the implementation of programmable Opto-Electronic Analogic CNN (POAC) Computers embedding CNN Universal Chips. Specifically, a new method for optical CNN implementation is provided and some details are experimentally studied. The POAC architecture includes the integration of an optical processing system, such as a joint transform correlator, with the fast spatio-temporal processing capabilities of a CNN-UM chip. We have built and tested an optical sub-unit of this experimental optoelectronic architecture to examine their processing capabilities for complex target recognition tasks. Preliminary result of these measurements will also be presented. The main idea is to introduce stored programmability into optical computing.