JP2840387B2 - Optical signal processing device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an optical signal processing device.

2. Description of the Related Art It is extremely important in image information processing to input an image pattern and extract features such as its edge and center of gravity.

The inventor has previously proposed an optical functional device as shown in FIG. 3A which can perform edge extraction and centroid extraction.

In the drawing, reference numeral 3 denotes a transfer layer in which microelements in which bacteriorhodopsin is oriented are arranged. The arrangement of the elements in the transfer layer 3 may be one-dimensional or two-dimensional, but here, for simplicity of description, a one-dimensional arrangement is assumed, and the elements are arranged in one row in the horizontal direction of the drawing. Shall be.

A transparent hydrogen ion supply layer 1 is provided on one side of the transfer layer 3, and a diffusion layer 5 is provided on the other side. The diffusion layer 5 is made of a material that diffuses hydrogen ions.

The detection layer 7 is sandwiched between the diffusion layer 5 and the transfer layer 3.
Is provided. The detection layer 7 is a small pH electrode and the transfer layer 3
Are arranged in opposition to the arrangement of the elements in the above.

The bacteriorhodopsin in each of the elements constituting the transfer layer 3 is oriented so that "when the element is irradiated with light, the element transfers the hydrogen ions of the hydrogen ion supply layer 1 to the diffusion layer 5 side". I have.

In FIG. 3B and thereafter, the horizontal axis X corresponds to the left-right direction in FIG. 3A.

When the transfer layer 3 was irradiated with a one-dimensional light pattern having a light intensity distribution as shown in FIG. 3B via the hydrogen ion supply layer 1, bacteriorhodopsin of the light-irradiated element was irradiated. The amount of hydrogen ions proportional to the light intensity is transferred to the diffusion layer 5.

The transferred hydrogen ions diffuse into the diffusion layer 5, while the hydrogen ions transferred by one element diffuse according to a Gaussian function type concentration distribution. Therefore, the concentration ρ (X) of all the transferred hydrogen ions is obtained by superimposing the concentration distribution of the transferred hydrogen ions for each of the above-mentioned elements, and in the example described, “ρ (X)” as shown in FIG. The distribution becomes Gaussian function type as a whole.

When ρ (X) is detected by the detection layer 7 and the result is differentiated twice with respect to X, a curve as shown in FIG. 3D is obtained as d ² ρ / dX ² . Since the zero cross point of this curve coincides with the edge of the input light pattern as shown in the figure, the edge can be extracted by obtaining the zero cross point.

The edge extraction is in the mathematically equivalent to the edge extraction by the action of ∇ ² G operator that is proposed by Marr and the like.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] For feature extraction such as centroid extraction, a method by Seibert et al. Has been known, and the optical function device shown in FIG. 3 can also perform such feature extraction. To do so, the light pattern to be input needs to be a pattern corresponding to the edge or intersection position.

An object of the present invention is to provide a novel optical information processing device that can easily and reliably perform edge extraction and center of gravity extraction.

[Means for Solving the Problems] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described.

The optical signal processing device according to the present invention includes two or more optical functional elements and one or more light emitting element arrays.

The “optical functional element” has a light receiving layer, a signal transmission layer, and a signal processing layer.

The “light receiving layer” receives a one-dimensional or two-dimensional light pattern and converts it into a diffusive signal corresponding to the light pattern.

The “signal transmission layer” transmits a diffuse signal by the light receiving layer while diffusing the signal.

The “signal processing layer” receives the signal transmitted by the signal transmission layer and performs signal processing including spatial differentiation processing.

N (≧ 2) such optical functional elements are arranged, and a light emitting element array is provided between each optical functional element.

The “light emitting element array” is one in which light emitting elements are arranged one-dimensionally or two-dimensionally. The arrangement of the light emitting elements is one-dimensional or two-dimensional depending on whether the light pattern processed by the optical functional element is one-dimensional or two-dimensional.

The output of the i-th (N−1 ≧ i ≧ 1) optical functional element is
The light is converted into a light pattern by the light emitting element array provided between the optical functional element and the (i + 1) -th optical functional element, and is applied to the light receiving layer of the (i + 1) -th optical functional element.

[Operation] As described above, in the optical information processing apparatus of the present invention, the optical functional elements are provided in stages, and the processing result of the preceding optical functional element can be immediately processed by the next optical functional element.

[Example] Hereinafter, a description will be given based on a specific example.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, reference numerals 2A and 2B denote the same optical functional elements as those described with reference to FIG. So the sign
1A and 1B indicate a hydrogen ion supply layer, 3A and 3B indicate a transfer layer, 5A and 5B indicate a diffusion layer, and 7A and 7B indicate a detection layer. Reference numerals 6A and 6B denote interfaces, reference numeral 6 denotes an arithmetic circuit, and reference numeral 4 denotes a light emitting element array.

In this embodiment, “the hydrogen ion supply layer 1A and the transfer layer 3
"A" and "hydrogen ion supply layer 1B and transfer layer 3B" constitute a light receiving layer in each optical functional element.

 The diffusion layers 5A and 5B form a signal transmission layer.

Further, the “detection layer 7A, the interface 6A, and the arithmetic circuit 6” constitute the signal processing layer of the optical functional device 2A,
7B, interface 6B and arithmetic circuit 6 "are optical functional devices
Construct a 2B signal processing layer.

Specifically, a microcomputer can be used as the arithmetic circuit 6.

For the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that the light pattern to be processed is one-dimensional, and that the light-emitting elements in the light-emitting element array are arranged in one row in the left-right direction in the figure.

When the light receiving layer of the optical functional element 2A is irradiated with a one-dimensional light pattern having a light intensity distribution as shown in FIG. 2 (A) (the X direction corresponds to the horizontal direction in FIG. 1), It will be easily understood from the above description that an output (corresponding to the hydrogen ion concentration ρ) as shown in FIG. 2B is obtained from the detection layer 7A.

This output is taken into the arithmetic circuit 6 via the interface 6A, and the arithmetic circuit 6 calculates the d ² ρ / dX ² by performing spatial differentiation twice with respect to the taken signal, and finds its zero cross point (second (C). Then, the light emitting element array emits light corresponding to the obtained zero cross point. That is, the light emitting element at the position corresponding to the zero cross point is caused to emit light.

The light intensity distribution corresponding to this light emitting state is shown in FIG.
Shown in This emission intensity distribution is input as a one-dimensional light pattern into the light receiving layer of the optical functional device 2B. Then the diffusion layer
In FIG. 5B, a density distribution ρ of two peaks as shown in FIG. 2 (E) is obtained. This density distribution becomes a simple Gaussian function type distribution as shown in FIG. 2 (F) as time elapses. The density distribution at this time is detected by the detection layer 7B, taken into the arithmetic circuit 6 via the interface 6B, and differentiated once by the spatial coordinate X to obtain a curve as shown in FIG. 2 (G). Corresponds to the middle point of the light emission position in the light intensity distribution of FIG. 2 (D). This intermediate point corresponds to the center of gravity of the input light pattern shown in FIG. This centroid extraction is mathematically equivalent to that proposed by Seibert et al.

As described above, the edge of the input light pattern is extracted as the output of the optical function element 2A, and the center of gravity of the input light pattern is extracted as the output of the optical function element 2B.

In the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, if a keyboard is connected to the arithmetic circuit 6, an external signal is added to the processing result of the optical functional element 2A, or a signal modified by an external signal is sent to the optical functional element 2B. It can also be processed.

FIG. 4 shows another example of an optical functional element that can be used in the optical signal processing device of the present invention.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a light receiving element array in which light receiving elements are arranged one-dimensionally or two-dimensionally. The light-emitting element array indicated by reference numeral 14 has light-emitting elements arranged in correspondence with the arrangement of the light-receiving elements in the light-receiving element array 10. Photodetector array
The light pattern irradiated on the light 10 is read by the light receiving element array 10, and the light pattern is reproduced by the light emitting element array 14 by the control circuit 12. Then, the reproduced light pattern is converted by the diffusion plate 16 into a diffusive signal DL.

This signal is detected by the light receiving element array 18 in which light receiving elements are arranged “corresponding to the light emitting element arrangement of the light emitting element array 14”. The output is subjected to processing including a differential operation by the arithmetic circuit 20.

In this optical functional element, a light receiving element array 10 and a control circuit 12
The light emitting element array 14 and the diffusion plate 16 constitute a light receiving layer. The signal transmission layer is the space itself between the diffusion plate 16 and the light receiving element array 18. Then, the light receiving element array 18 and the arithmetic circuit 20 constitute a signal processing layer.

4 to the light receiving element array 10 and the control circuit
The light receiving layer can also be constituted only by the diffusion plate 16 by removing the light emitting element array 12 and the light emitting element array 14.

In FIG. 4, the displacement means 17 is composed of a diffusion plate 16 and a light receiving element array.
The spatial distance between the two, that is, the thickness of the signal transmission layer is changed. This change corresponds to the time lapse described with reference to FIGS. 2 (E) and 2 (F), and increasing the spatial distance corresponds to a positive lapse of the diffusion time of the diffusive signal.

In the example described above, a one-dimensional case is described as the configuration of the light receiving layer and the like. However, it is needless to say that a two-dimensional pattern can be processed by forming the two-dimensional configuration.

The optical functional elements can be arranged in three or more stages as necessary.

Further, as shown in the embodiment of FIG. 1, when the common arithmetic circuit 6 is used for the signal processing layers of the two-stage optical functional elements, the output of the second-stage optical functional elements 2B is displayed on the light emitting element array 4. By using the optical functional element 2B repeatedly, the optical functional element 3
Functions similar to those arranged in rows or more can be realized.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a novel optical signal processing device can be provided. Since this device is configured as described above, edge extraction and centroid extraction can be easily and reliably executed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining edge extraction and center of gravity extraction according to the above embodiment, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are diagrams for explaining an optical functional element. FIG. 2A, 2B …… Optical functional element, 4 …… Light emitting element array

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A light-receiving layer which receives a one-dimensional or two-dimensional light pattern and converts it into a diffusive signal corresponding to the light pattern, and diffuses the diffusive signal by the light-receiving layer. Function element having a signal transmission layer that transmits signals while transmitting the signals and a signal processing layer that performs signal processing including spatial differentiation processing in response to the signal transmitted by the signal transmission layer is denoted by N (≧
2) A light-emitting element array in which light-emitting elements are arranged one-dimensionally or two-dimensionally is arranged between each of the optical functional elements, and a light-emitting element array of the i-th (N−1 ≧ i ≧ 1) The output is converted into an optical pattern by a light emitting element array provided between the optical functional element and the (i + 1) th optical functional element, and
An optical signal processing device, characterized in that it is configured to irradiate the light receiving layer of the first optical functional element.