JPS61137125A - Optical information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplifying the constitution of an optical information processor which operates optical input information through an optical filter and generates output information, and improve the operability by using the optical fiber whose patterns are freely changeable. CONSTITUTION:Irradiation luminous flux from a laser 51 is transmitted through an image 61 to be inspected to obtain optical input information, which is processed through the filter 63 of an optical controller and photodetected by a photoelectric converting element 65 in the form projection light of output information. This filter 63 has patterns changed freely by the movement of a grain body in a liquid layer on the basis of feeding to a specific heating resistance body by a heating resistance body driving circuit 71 which reacts to a filter pattern generating circuit 70. Therefore, an optical filter having many kinds of patterns need not be prepared, the constitution of the optical information processor is simplified, and the operability is improved.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] 〔Technical field〕 The present invention relates to an optical information processing device.

[Prior Art]' Conventionally, various devices for optically processing information have been proposed. In these devices, for example, new information (processed image) is obtained by performing calculations and the like by optically applying a filter having optical characteristics according to the purpose to a test image that is an information source. However, in this method, when carrying out a series of processes for the same purpose, it is necessary to prepare a large number of filters with slightly different optical characteristics in advance, and furthermore, the device has the disadvantage of poor operability. It had a

[Summary of the invention]

In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional example, the present invention provides an optical information processing device that has a simple structure and is highly practical by using a light amount control element described below as a filter for the optical information processing device. With the goal.

The optical information processing referred to here means a process of obtaining optical output information that is generally different from the input information by optically filtering optically expressed input information.

According to the present invention, the following objects are achieved by using a light amount control element that can freely form a filter pattern in the apparatus described in (-).

An example of a method for controlling the amount of light used in the filter according to the present invention is to control the amount of light by changing the state of the wavefront of the incident light beam by moving particles present in the liquid. In other words, particles are made to exist in a liquid, the particles are moved by partially changing the temperature of the liquid, a beam of light is incident on the movement path of the particles, and the time period during which the particles stay in the incident beam of light is calculated. This is achieved by controlling the Alternatively, this can be achieved by controlling the area of the particles in the incident light beam with respect to the direction of the incident light beam and/or the number of particles in the incident light beam.

Note that the particles include three states: gas, solid, and liquid. Gases include vapor bubbles formed by Ni1liii of a liquid, and bubbles made of components that are difficult to dissolve in liquids, such as argon, air, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, helium, neon, and -oxidation mixed into an aqueous solution. These are bubbles of carbon, nitrogen, methane, etc. As a solid, it is a relatively small amount of material, such as a polymer material, and as a liquid, it is a liquid that does not mix with the original liquid.
For example, a combination of water and oil.

A further example of the optical star control force method used in the filter according to the invention is a 7 trix array using liquid crystals. For example, the amount of transmitted light can be made variable by controlling the voltage applied to counter electrodes sandwiching liquid crystal to control the alignment state of the liquid crystal.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view for explaining the operating mechanism of the light control element used in the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view thereof.

In the figure, 1 is a transparent protective plate, 2 is a liquid layer made of ethyl alcohol, and 3 is a thermally conductive reflective layer, which is made of, for example, a Ta film. 4 is a heating resistor (6a, 6b,...
6e) and an insulating material 5i02 between each resistor.
The heating resistor layer 5 is an insulating support.

7 is a particle formed of bubbles, 8 is a conductive wire, and is connected to each driving power source (Vl to V5) so that the heating resistors (6a, 6b, . . . 6e) can be driven independently, On the other hand, the other ends 9 of the heating resistors (6a, 6b, . . . 6e) are grounded or set to a common voltage. Therefore, by controlling the voltage applied to each heating resistor, the temperature of the liquid layer near the heating resistor can be controlled. For example, the heating resistor embedded in the layer 4 made of S f02 is 20
pLm, the spacing of the heating resistor 2 is 50 gm.

When providing bubbles as particles in a liquid using the element shown in Figure 1, the bubbles can be easily formed in the liquid by applying heat to the heating resistor and forming vapor bubbles in the liquid. . For example, in the element having the configuration shown in FIG. 1, if the liquid is ethyl alcohol, approximately 4.2
When a DC voltage of v was applied, bubbles with a diameter of about 150 lm were formed, and once formed, the vapor bubbles did not disappear even when the applied voltage was lowered. Even when the voltage applied to the heating resistor was lowered to about 1.5V, the particles made of air bubbles remained attracted to the vicinity of the heating resistor. Therefore, this made it possible to maintain the position of the bubbles.

The movement of the grains 7 is carried out as follows.

That is, as shown in the first factor, when a voltage is applied to the heating resistor 6b, the bubble particles 7 are present in the vicinity of the heating resistor, but the voltage applied to the heating resistor 6b When the voltage is turned off and a voltage is applied to the heating resistor 6C, the particles 7 move to the vicinity of the heating resistor 6C. In this way, by creating a temperature difference within the liquid, the particles 7 move, and in the case of an element like the one shown in FIG. 1, the particles move near the resistor that is generating heat. Therefore, by selecting the heating resistor to which voltage is applied, the position of the particles can be controlled. In this case, when a voltage of 1.5 V was applied to the adjacent heating resistor of 50 pL+nll and at the same time the voltage of the heating resistor attracting the bubble was cut off, the bubble moved to the position of the adjacent heating resistor. Also, ■Two 20gm apart (
'', the bubbles were moved by applying a voltage of 2 V to the heating resistor.

This movement of the particles is based on the formation of a temperature difference within the liquid layer 2, and the particles 7 move from the low temperature side to the high temperature side.

In the device shown in Figure 1, in order to hold the particles in the liquid, a bias voltage (holding voltage) is applied to the heating resistor that attracts the particles to a level that does not create bubbles in the liquid. It is desirable to keep it applied. Another driving method is to apply the above bias voltage to all the heat generating resistors, and apply a relatively high voltage higher than the bias voltage to the heat generating resistors located at the target position to move the particles. The particles are pulled together and then lowered to the bias voltage. In this way, the granules can be held in place.

FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view showing that it is possible to control the amount of light by controlling the residence time of the particles in the incident light beam using a light control element having the particle movement mechanism as described above. FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 1V-IV. In the figure, 11 is a granule, and the granule 11 is made of air bubbles and is transparent. 12 is a light blocking filter, 14 is a transparent glass plate, and 15 is an opaque liquid. 16 is a protective layer made of a transparent dielectric, and 17 is a heater 18a.
, 18b, and 19 is a transparent glass substrate. In the device of this example, the thickness of the liquid layer 15 is smaller than the diameter of the particles (bubbles) 11, so
1 has a relatively large contact area with the transparent glass plate 14 and the transparent dielectric protective layer 16.

In this element, by controlling the heat generation temperature of the heaters 18a and 18b, when the particles 11 are positioned near the heater 18a, that is, in the area covered by the light blocking filter 12, the incident light flux from the -L direction is blocked. The liquid enters the opaque liquid layer 15 from the transparent glass plate 14 in the area where the filter 12 is not covered, where it is absorbed and is not emitted in the F direction. Next, by controlling the heat generation temperature of the heaters 18a and 18b, the particles 11 are positioned in the vicinity of the heater 18b, that is, in the area where the light-shielding filter 12 is not covered (shape 8 in FIGS. 1 and 2). The incident light flux from the shear force passes through the grains 11 from the transparent glass plate 14, passes through the transparent glass substrate 19, and is emitted downward.

The operation of the device of this example will be explained with reference to FIG. The figure is a graph showing the relationship between the voltage V applied to the heater and the time T. First, in the initial state, a voltage is applied to the heater 18b and no voltage is applied to the heater 18a, so that the particles 11 are located near the heater 18b. Next, the voltage applied to the heater 18b is set to O, and at the same time, a voltage is applied to the heater 18a. As a result, the particles 11 are moved from the vicinity of the heater 18b to the heater 18b.
Move to the vicinity of a. After continuing the voltage application to the heater 18a for a time E1 and keeping the grains 11 near the heater 18a for a time t1, the applied voltage is set to O.

In particular, a voltage is applied to the heater 18b. This results in
The particles 11 move from the vicinity of the heater 18a to the vicinity of the heater 18b. After continuing to apply the voltage to the heater 18b for one time and keeping the particles 11 near the heater 18b for a time t2, the applied voltage is set to O. At the same time, a voltage is applied to the heater 18a. As a result, the grains 11
moves from the vicinity of the heater 18b to the vicinity of the heater 18a. Thereafter, the granules 11 are moved and held in the same manner. The amount of transmitted light at time To (-t 1 + t2) in FIG. 5 is proportional to the time t2 during which the particles 11 are present in the part where the light shielding filter 12 is not present. Therefore, for example, by keeping To constant and varying t2, the JP-A average of the amount of transmitted light can be set to an arbitrary value.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a drive circuit for realizing the above-mentioned driving method for the element. In the figure, 20 is an element part including heaters 18a and 18b, 21 is a switching circuit, and 22 is a voltage generation circuit. 23 is a control circuit, and 24 is a signal generation circuit. Signal generation circuit 2
Based on the signal from 4, a heater energization time control signal as shown in FIG. 4 is generated in the control circuit 23,
Based on the signal, the switching circuit 21 switches the voltage generation circuit 2
2 and heater 18a.

18b. Since such a circuit can be easily realized, a description of the specific configuration of the circuit will be omitted.

FIG. 7 shows the area of particles in the direction of the incident light beam and/or the particle size in the incident light beam using the light control element having the particle movement mechanism explained using FIGS. 1 and 2. Fig. 8 is a schematic plan view showing that the amount of light can be controlled by controlling the number of bodies;
FIG. In the figure, 31 is a granule, and the granule 31 is made of air bubbles and is transparent. 32 is a light blocking filter, 34 is a transparent glass plate, and 35 is an opaque liquid. 36 is a protective layer made of a transparent dielectric;
7 is a heating element layer including heaters 38a, 38b, 38cm---, and 39 is a transparent glass substrate. In this device, the thickness of the liquid layer 35 is smaller than the diameter of the particles (bubbles) 31, and therefore the particles 31 have a relatively large contact area with the transparent glass plate 34 and the transparent dielectric protective layer 36.

In this element, when the grains 31 are positioned near the heater 38a, that is, in the area where the light-shielding filter 32 hangs and rises, by controlling the heat generation temperature of each heater, the incident light flux from the information is transmitted to the light-shielding filter 32. In the past, it entered the opaque liquid layer 35 from the transparent glass plate 34 of the I/X part, where it was absorbed and did not emit downward.
,%.

Next, by controlling the heat generation temperature of each heater, the particles 31 can be moved to the vicinity of the heater 38b, and in the same manner, the particles are sequentially passed through the light-blocking filter 32. It can be moved from part to part.

In the state shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the required light flux of the upward force is transmitted through the transparent glass plates 34 to 31, passes through the transparent glass substrate 39, and is emitted downward.

The operation of the device of this example will be explained with reference to FIG.

This figure is a graph showing the relationship between the voltage V applied to each heater and the time T. First, in the initial state, heater 3
Voltage is applied only to 8a, which causes the particles 31
is located near the heater 38a. Next, the voltage application to the heater 38a is stopped, and at the same time, the voltage is applied to the heater 38b. Thereafter, short pulse-like voltages are sequentially applied to the heaters in the same manner, and the
A voltage is applied to the heater 1- for a relatively long time to, the particles 31 are held in the heater 1- for a time to, and then the (i-1)-th, (i-2)-th, -1-th A short pulse-like voltage is sequentially applied in the opposite direction to move the particles to the heater 38a.

When the grains 31 are held near the i-th heater, as shown in FIGS. , the area of the grains 31 seen from above is S
If the area of the uncovered grain part of the light-shielding filter 32 is S at O, then -4 When light flux is incident from two directions, only the amount of light S/So times the amount of incident light goes downward to the outside. is ejected. Therefore, by selecting a heater that holds the particles 31, the amount of transmitted light can be set to an arbitrary value.

At this time, it is important to increase the number of heaters as much as possible and to control the drive so that the time for moving the grains 31 is sufficiently small compared to the time to during which the grains 31 are held in the vicinity of the i-th heater. The number of gradation levels and the light utilization rate
preferred for.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a drive circuit for realizing the drive method in this element, and in the figure, 40 is a heater 38.
an element section including a, 38b, 38c, -----, 41 is a switching circuit, and 42
is a voltage generation circuit, 43 is a control circuit, and 44 is a signal generation circuit. Based on the signal from the signal generation circuit 44, a heater energization time control signal as shown in FIG.
a, 38b, 38cm--1. Since such a circuit can be easily realized, a description of the physical structure of the circuit will be omitted.

Embodiments of an optical information processing device using the light amount control device described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 10 will be described below.

The embodiment shown in FIG.
It is a filtering device, and its feature is that the light amount control device is used as a variable matched filter. 11th
In the figure, the light beam emitted from the laser 51 is emitted from the optical system 5.
2, the light is once focused on a point 60, and then collimated S by an optical system 53 whose front focal point is located at the point 60.

A test image 61 is placed in the collimated light beam, and the front focus of the optical system 54 is made to coincide with the test image 61. On the other hand, a diffuser plate 62 is arranged at the rear focal position of the optical system 54. As a result, the composite system of the optical systems 53 and 54 functions as a Fourier transform optical system, and the Fourier transform image a of the test image 61
61 appears on the diffuser plate 621. However, the diffuser plate 62
Due to the diffusion effect, the deterministic relationship of the phase components is removed, so for the optical system after the diffuser plate 62, the diffuser plate 62 can be regarded as an incoherent object whose intensity distribution is expressed by 1a6112.

Next, the optical system 55 is placed at the front focal position of the diffuser plate 62. The light amount control device 63 is arranged so as to be located at the rear focal position. Furthermore, the optical system 56 includes a light amount control device 63 at its front focal position, and a light shielding plate 6 having an opening in the center at its rear focal position.
Arrange them so that the number 4 is in their respective positions. A photoelectric conversion element 65 is arranged behind the opening of the light shielding plate 64. Light amount control device 63
is a two-dimensional arrangement of particle moving elements according to the present invention, and in each element, depending on the position of the particles, it is determined whether or not to transmit incident light to the device, or to transmit an appropriate amount of transmitted light. Make a selection. The position of the particles is controlled by a drive signal given from a heating resistor drive circuit 71 based on a signal from a filter pattern generator 70 . Therefore, depending on the signal from the filter pattern generator 70, the light amount control device 63 exhibits various matched filter patterns. The function of matched filtering will be explained below. Now, consider the case where there is a point light source at the center of the diffuser plate 62. At this time, the intensity distribution on the light shielding plate 64 is l.
A Fourier transform image represented by as312 appears.

That is, the combined system of optical systems 55 and 56 can be regarded as an incoherent imaging system whose point spread function is expressed by lae312. Therefore, if the test image 61 is inserted at the position shown in the figure, the area on the diffuser plate 62 can be regarded as an object plane whose intensity distribution is represented by 1ast and 12, and as a result, the areas on the light shielding plate 64 are 1ae112 and lae312(7). Correlation patterns emerge. Therefore, by detecting the output from the photoelectric conversion element 65, it is possible to know the degree of correlation between the test image 61 and the matched filter 63.

By using the light amount control device as a matched filter, the device shown in FIG. 11 has the following features. In other words, in the conventional matched filtering device,
It has been used for purposes such as character reading, for example, by mechanically exchanging matched filters prepared in advance for the test image 61 one after another and checking the cross-correlation values. However, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, it is possible to create various filter patterns by changing the position of the particles inside the light amount control device 63 while keeping it fixed. No mechanical operating parts are required, and as a result, the device can be made smaller and the processing speed can be increased. Furthermore, the optical system shown in FIG. 11 has power spectra 1asx12 and 1aea.
Since this method examines the 12cr+ correlation, it has the characteristic that restrictions on the position of the image are relaxed.In addition, in this embodiment, the matched filter pattern light @ Rotation around the center or scaling of the pattern can be easily performed using signals from the filter pattern generator. Therefore, the operability of the device can be simplified compared to the conventional example.

A further embodiment using a light amount control device as a filter for an optical information processing device is shown in FIG. FIG. 12 shows the coherent image information processing device TEAL. The coherent light from the laser s1 is expanded in diameter by the beam expander 82 and illuminates the test image 91. The optical systems 83 and 84 form a re-diffraction optical system having a so-called ff configuration. The test image 91 is placed at the front focal position of the optical system 83;4. The light amount control device 92 according to the invention is located at the rear focal position of the optical system 83 and the front focal position 1η of the optical system 84, and the observation surface 85 is located at the rear focal position of the optical system 84. As is well known, in the 1-optical distribution system, a Fourier spectrum of a test image 91 is formed on a light amount control device 92 . On the other hand, since it is possible to generate a filter pattern having a predetermined transmittance distribution in the light amount control device 92 according to the principle described above, low-pass, bypass, and band-pass transmission processing is performed, and the results are transmitted to the observation surface 85. It can be observed above. Alternatively, it is also possible to arrange a two-dimensional sensor at the position of the view 1111 surface 85 and perform further processing afterward.

The movement of the particles in the light amount control device 92 is controlled by a drive signal given from a heating resistor drive circuit 94 based on a signal from a filter pattern generation device 93 . In this embodiment as well, the desired pattern can be obtained by controlling the arrangement of the particles in the light amount control device 92, so there is no need for mechanical operating parts such as filter replacement, and the device can be simplified.
It has features such as being able to speed up processing and being suitable for general-purpose processing.

A further embodiment using a light amount control device as a filter for an optical information processing device is shown in a plan view in FIG. 13 and in a front view in FIG. 14. The device shown in both figures is an optical matrix calculation processing device, and performs the calculation of Y=A.X. Now, a case will be described in which an example calculation is performed. In both figures, 101 is an LED light source, and each LED I O1a, 101b,
The moderation of 101c is xl in the above formula.

Corresponds to x2 and x3. In this embodiment, the light flux from each LED passes through the anamorphic optical system 102 and illuminates the light amount control device 103-f knee in the form of three tree lines. The light amount control device 103 operates according to the above-mentioned principle.
l, a12, a13.

Each illumination light weight is transmitted at predetermined values of a2+, a22, and a23. That is, the light amount control device 103
It represents a set of matrices A, and desired values can be set by the operations described above. The light beam after passing through the light control device 103 is transmitted through the anamorphic optical system 10.
The amount of light is detected by the two light receiving elements 105a and 105b via the light receiving element 4. The output from this light receiving element 105 is 71. ”/2.

Also in this embodiment, great effects can be obtained by using the light amount control device 103 as a filter, as in the previous embodiments.

FIGS. 15 and 16 (A), (B), (C), and (D) described above using FIGS. 1 to 10 are diagrams showing further embodiments of the optical information processing device according to the present invention. This is an embodiment of an image information processing apparatus that uses a light amount control element (device) as a means for forming a synthetic aperture function. (See below.) Image processing of the original image is performed on the uniformly illuminated original image by performing composition processing using a synthetic aperture consisting of a plurality of apertures each having a predetermined transmittance.
Techniques for making corrections are widely known. In this example, a single light control element corresponds to a single aperture, and the amount of light transmitted through the aperture is controlled based on the method of controlling the amount of light transmitted through the light control element described above. It performs processing.

In FIG. 15, the light beam from the light source 111 is transmitted to the optical system 11.
2, a nearly uniform light amount distribution is achieved and the original image 113 is illuminated. Reference numeral 110 denotes a synthetic aperture made up of the light control elements, and each element is arranged in a two-dimensional seven-trix pattern.

The transmittance in each element is determined by the open pattern generating circuit 121.
The heating resistor drive circuit 122 controls the heating resistor drive circuit 122 based on the signal from the heating resistor drive circuit 122. The transmittance can be controlled by controlling the ratio of the area of the particles to the area of the aperture, or the amount of time the particles remain within the aperture per unit time, but the details are described above. and will be omitted here.

114 is a condensing optical system, which condenses the light beam transmitted through the synthetic aperture 110 onto an aperture provided on the image plane 115.

The photoelectric conversion element 116 generates an electric signal according to the weight of the condensed light. This electrical signal is processed image information corresponding to one pixel on the original image.

The principle of optical information processing according to this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. 16 using a one-dimensional model.

FIG. 16-A is a schematic representation of the original image 113. The horizontal axis is position information. The sampling interval is determined by the distance between adjacent apertures in the synthetic aperture 110. The vertical axis is image information (eg, transmittance) at the sampled position.

To simplify the explanation, a binary image is displayed.

FIG. 16-B shows an example of a synthetic aperture for -dimensional Laplacian calculation in a six-tree diagram representing the transmittance of each aperture of the synthetic aperture 110. Since the transmittance of each aperture is variable between 0 and 1, the transmittance of the central aperture is 1, and the transmittances on both sides thereof are 0. Other apertures give 1/3 transmission. As a result of matching the synthetic aperture shown in FIG. 16-B to the original image shown in FIG. 16-A, an output of 5/3 (relative value) from the photoelectric conversion element 116 is obtained. Next, based on the signal from the open pattern generating circuit 121, the heating resistor drive circuit 122 shifts the open pattern shown in FIG. 16-B by one pixel. By repeating this procedure, composition calculations are sequentially performed.

The calculation results are shown in FIG. 16-C. Figure 16-D is the first
This is a processed image obtained by subtracting 5/3 of the bias component from the calculation result shown in FIG. 6-C by a calculation system not shown. As a result of Laplacian processing, the outline of the original image is extracted.

The characteristics of the optical information processing device shown in this embodiment are as follows. That is, by using the light control element as a synthetic aperture for calculations, it is possible to freely form two-dimensional synthetic apertures that correspond to various calculations. Furthermore, the synthetic aperture is configured to move relative to the original screen using electrical signals, and does not require a mechanical movement mechanism, which speeds up calculations.
It is possible to simplify the operation and downsize the device. In addition, as can be understood from the above description, the light control element has the excellent feature of not being affected by the polarization, wavelength characteristics, etc. of the incident light beam.

In the embodiments using the above drawings, a filter for an optical information processing device using a light amount control element based on movement of particles is shown.

It will be explained below that in the present invention, it is also possible to use a liquid crystal matrix array as the light amount control element.

That is, polarizers are arranged on both sides of the liquid crystal matrix array in a crossed Nicol state. In this state, by controlling the alignment state of the liquid crystals constituting each matrix in the array, it is possible to individually change the polarization state of the incident light beam. Therefore, the amount of light after exiting from the analyzer changes depending on the difference between the direction of the polarization axis of the polarizer (analyzer) on the exit side and the polarization direction of the light flux that has passed through each matrix.

Of course, if the input light beam is linearly polarized light, a polarizer on the incident side is unnecessary.

It is possible to apply a light amount control element using this liquid crystal matrix array to the optical information processing apparatus described in FIGS. The same effect can be obtained when it is applied.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Below, we will explain 1-1 an element that varies the amount of light by moving particles in a liquid, a variable light amount element that uses a liquid crystal matrix array, and use drawings to explain various optical information processing devices that use these as filters. I gave an explanation.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an optical information processing device that has a simple configuration and excellent operability.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIGS. 1 and 2 are diagrams for explaining the operating principle of the light control element used as a filter in the present invention, and FIGS.
FIG. 0 is a diagram for explaining that the amount of light can be controlled using a "-distribution element," and FIGS. 11 to 16 are diagrams showing embodiments of the optical information processing equipment according to the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Transparent protective plate, 2...Liquid thin layer, 3...Opposite layer, 4...Heating resistor layer, 5...Support, 6a, 6
b. 6c, 6d, 6e...Heating resistor, 7...Particle, 5
1... Laser, 52, 53, 54, 55° 56...
・Optical system, 61...Test image, 62...Diffusion plate, 6
3... Tip control device, 64... Light shielding plate, 65...
Photoelectric conversion element, 70... Filter pattern generator, 71... Heat generating resistor drive circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An optical information processing device that obtains output information by calculating optically expressed input information using an optical filter, wherein the optical filter has a variable filter pattern.