Programmable Analogic Cellular Optical Computer using Bacteriorhodopsin as Analog Rewriteable Image Memory

Bacteriorhodopsin has been proved to be an outstanding candidate for reversible, transient, real-time, holographic material. Here we show our preliminary experimental investigation of its applicability as a transient analog memory, concentrating on its possible utilization in optical CNN implementations and in programmable opto-electronic analogic CNN computers (POAC). Different possible architectures and the technical details of its applicability are also discussed. The main objective is to provide a framework for the implementation of Programmable Opto-Electronic Analogic CNN 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 using bacteriorhodopsin as holographic material, with the fast spatio-temporal processing capabilities of a CNN-UM chip. We have built and tested an optical sub-unit of this experimental opto-electronic architecture to examine their processing capabilities in complex target recognition tasks. The main idea is to introduce stored programmability into optical computing. The specification of the necessary holographic material for POAC application is given. Some measurement results on BR samples are presented.