JPH0816856B2 - Image processing device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing device. More specifically, the present invention performs parallel optical calculation of image information by storing and encoding an image pattern by irradiating light and nondestructively reading the change in optical characteristics of the optical information input medium at that time. The present invention relates to a novel image processing device that can be used.

[0002]

[Prior art and its problems] With the rapid development of optoelectronics, expectations for advanced use of image information are increasing, and a vigorous study is underway to enhance its technical base and improve its technology. ing. In such a situation, the need for high-speed processing of image information becomes even stronger, and the development of new optical information devices incorporating the concept of parallel processing has become an extremely important issue along with higher resolution of image devices. Further, not only the high-speed processing of a large amount of image information but also the function of computing a plurality of images has become necessary.

However, in an electric image processing system that has been conventionally used, a so-called Neumann serial system in which an image picked up by a television camera is converted into a time series electric signal and then sequentially processed in an electronic circuit of a computer Therefore, there is a limit to speeding up the processing of a large amount of image information.

On the other hand, the technique of using light for information processing is expected to be capable of processing image information in real time because it has spatial parallelism, high speed, and wide bandwidth. However, in spite of such expectations for the optical technology, various attempts have been made so far regarding the material configuration of devices and the like and the information processing method, but in reality, few have been put into practical use.

For example, as regards an optical information input medium which is a key technology in optical information processing, liquid crystal has been used in the conventional image information processing apparatus. Although this liquid crystal has a relatively high response speed, it has a poor resolution. ,And,
It has no learning function or memory. Therefore, there was a limit to its use and functional enhancement. This is an essential problem of the liquid crystal, and it was technically difficult to overcome this limitation.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, overcomes the limitation of liquid crystal as a conventional optical information input medium, and achieves a dramatic sophistication of optical information processing.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new image information processing device which can realize advanced processing of image information, a learning function and a memory function.

[0007]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a light source for writing an image pattern, an optical information input medium for storing and encoding a plurality of image patterns, and an information calculation. An image composed of multiple point light sources to be performed and a screen for reading out and displaying the calculation results.
In the image processing device, the optical information input medium is formed by sequentially laminating a first transparent electrode, an optical semiconductor, a transparent electrolyte, a second transparent electrode, and further a transparent body on both surfaces of a transparent substrate, and the first transparent electrode is (EN) Provided is an image processing device, which is divided into lines, and the divided portions are orthogonal to each other on both sides of a transparent substrate.

That is, in the present invention, the optical information input medium is manufactured by sequentially laminating the first transparent electrode, the optical semiconductor, the transparent electrolyte, the second transparent electrode, and further the transparent body on both surfaces of the transparent substrate. Then, the light having the energy larger than the band gap of the optical semiconductor is input as the input light, and after passing through the plurality of input patterns, the light is input to both sides of the optical information input medium to store and encode the image. Of the plurality of light sources, for example, the point light source is blinked, and the calculation result projected on the screen further behind is read.

[0009]

The optical information input medium in the image processing apparatus of the present invention will be described in more detail. When the optical semiconductor is an n-type semiconductor, when the n-type semiconductor comes into contact with the electrolyte, the Fermi level of the semiconductor and the electrolyte are The redox potentials of the two coincide with each other, and a space charge layer is formed on the n-type semiconductor side as shown in FIG. When light (hr) having energy higher than the band gap of the semiconductor is irradiated to the interface with the semiconductor through the transparent electrode and the transparent electrolyte, electron (e ⁻ )-hole (h ⁺ ) pairs are generated inside the space charge layer. The generated and photoexcited carriers are separated by the internal electric field. The holes that have moved to the interface along the bend of the band oxidize the chemically reactive species in the electrolyte to form the ion M ⁺ . This M ⁺ is drawn into the semiconductor from the interface together with the electrons in the semiconductor, and an intercalation compound is formed. This phenomenon is called optical intercalation, and the introduced M ⁺ optically acts as a color center and electrically acts as a donor, and exhibits optical and electrical characteristic changes. On the other hand, in the case of a p-type semiconductor, M ⁺ is extracted from the interlayer to the electrolyte side during light irradiation. This phenomenon is called optical deintercalation. For erasing optical information, the second transparent electrode and the optical semiconductor, or the first transparent electrode
A specific voltage can be applied between the transparent electrode and the transparent electrode.
As a result, the optical and electrical characteristics of the optical semiconductor return to the initial state.

In the optical information input medium utilizing such optical intercalation and deintercalation effects, the output signal is proportional to the input light intensity and time-dependent as compared with the one using the conventional liquid crystal. Because I have sex
It has a learning function and memory. In addition, since the intercalating and deintercalating regions basically correspond to the basic lattice of the crystal, a sufficiently high resolution can be obtained as the rate is controlled by the wavelength order of the light to be detected.

In view of this, in the present invention, more specifically, two such optical information input media are used, and the first transparent electrode side is laminated back-to-back via the transparent substrate to form a two-layer optical medium. (De) Configure an intercalation cell. At this time, the opposing first transparent electrodes are patterned in a line shape, and are arranged so as to be orthogonal to each other.

There are no particular restrictions on the material of this cell structure, and it is possible to use any of the known transparent electrodes, optical semiconductors, and the like as appropriate. FIG. 2 exemplifies the configuration of the image processing device of the present invention using such a cell. First, the input light having an energy larger than the band gap of the optical semiconductor, for example, N ₂ laser light,
After halving the total reflection mirrors 3 and 4, the total reflection mirror 1 and
It is reflected at 2, passes through masks A and B of the input pattern, and is incident on both surfaces of the two-layer light (de) intercalation cell. Each input pattern is stored and simultaneously coded. Subsequently, the information is subjected to image calculation by blinking a plurality of point light sources arranged in the front, and is nondestructively read as a calculation result on a screen arranged in the rear.

With such a principle configuration, an unprecedented novel optical information computing device is realized. Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples.

[0014]

EXAMPLE FIG. 3 illustrates the basic structure (corresponding to one pixel) of a two-layer optical intercalation cell. After depositing an ITO (indium tin oxide) thin film (2) as a first transparent electrode on both surfaces of glass (1) which is a transparent substrate, pattern etching is performed so as to be orthogonal to each other to form the first transparent electrode as shown in FIG. And divide it into two equal parts. Subsequently, an a-WO ₃ thin film (3) as an optical semiconductor was vapor-deposited on both sides, and a quartz substrate (5) as a transparent body coated with an ITO thin film (4) as a second electrode thereof was sandwiched from both sides to form a transparent electrolyte. Both are filled with ethanol (6) as described above to prepare a cell.

Using such a cell, the device is constructed as illustrated in FIG. N ₂ laser (wavelength: 33
7 nm), and after being divided into two equal parts by the total reflection mirror, the light is further reflected by the total reflection mirror, passes through the mask of the input pattern, and is incident on both sides of the cell. Since this embodiment shows an example of one pixel, the same pattern is used. At this time, if a voltage is applied by the controller so that the first transparent electrode has a positive potential with respect to the second transparent electrode, optical intercalation (coloring) does not occur, so that the input pattern can be stored and encoded at the same time. Become.

FIG. 4 shows an example of this encoding rule. That is, first, as shown in FIG. 4A, in the configuration of FIG. 2, when both signals A and B are input in a reverse biased state, the a-WO ₃ thin film is not colored. This is set to 0. Further, among the signals of A, the upper half is colored when it is forward-biased, and the one of the signals of B is left-biased when it is forward-biased. By doing this, as shown in FIG. 4B, a coded pixel in which A and B are superimposed is obtained.

Next, four light-emitting diodes (wavelength: 650n) are used as point light sources in order to perform calculations between these coded pixels.
blinking in various combinations. At this time, the projected images are observed through a composite mask having square windows arranged in a square lattice so that the projected images of the pixels by the point light source are shifted from each other by half a pixel in the vertical and horizontal directions. The calculation result is obtained in parallel with the pixel as a light-dark symbol, that is, a pattern logical image. An example of this is shown in FIG. 5, in which white represents a bright state and black represents a dark state. As a coding pixel, for A and B, a diagonal line blinks.

[0018]

The result of the calculation is projected on the screen. FIG. 6 shows a projected image obtained on the screen when the combination of the values of the input pixels A and B is changed with respect to the blinking state of the light emitting diode. The four circles shown at the top indicate the blinking state of the light emitting diode, and the three columns on the left side show the state where the coded pixels corresponding to the values of the two input pixels A and B are overlapped. The numbers below each projected image represent the lightness and darkness of the central section, where 0 is dark and 1
Is clear. Since FIG. 6B is just the opposite of the encoding method of FIG. 6A, the calculation result is also the opposite of FIG. 6A. In this way, by combining the blinking states of the four point light sources,
10 types of images can be calculated. The logic gate operates in parallel in parallel, independently, and equivalently for each pixel forming the image.

Of course, the present invention is not limited to the above examples. Various aspects are possible.

[0021]

As described above in detail, according to the invention 2
An image processing device using a layered (de) intercalation cell as an optical information input medium has functions of parallel storage of images, encoding, operation, output and rewriting, and further simplification of the system is achieved. There is. Further, not only the binary image but also the transmitted light intensity of the cell can be continuously changed in accordance with the written light intensity, so that a grayscale image or a moving image can be easily created, and moving object extraction can be supported.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an energy band diagram of an n-type semiconductor-electrolyte interface.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an image calculation device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a two-layer optical intercalation cell of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual pattern diagram showing a rule of encoding between one pixel in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a pattern diagram showing an example of a calculation result when a coded pixel is changed in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a pattern diagram showing a calculation result obtained when the blinking states of the coded pixel and the light emitting diode in the embodiment are combined.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 glass 2 ITO thin curtain 3 a-WO ₃ thin film 4 ITO thin film 5 quartz substrate 6 ethanol

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A light source for writing an image pattern, an optical information input medium for storing and encoding a plurality of image patterns, a plurality of point light sources for computing information, and a screen for reading and displaying the computation result. Image processing equipment
The optical information input medium on both sides of the transparent substrate.
Bright electrode, optical semiconductor, transparent electrolyte, second transparent electrode, and
The first transparent electrode is formed by sequentially stacking transparent bodies as needed.
Are divided into lines, and the
An image processing apparatus characterized in that divided portions are orthogonal to each other . 2. The transparent electrolyte and the light semiconductor according to claim 1.
An image processing device , wherein an interlayer compound layer is formed at an interface with a body .