An optical processor for zero-crossing edge detection is presented which consists of two defocused imaging systems to perform the Gaussian convolutions and a VLSI, ferroelectric liquid crystal spatial light modulator (SLM) to determine the zero-crossings. The zero-crossing SLM is a 32 X 32 array of pixels located on 100 micrometers centers. Each pixels contains a phototransistor, an auto-scaling amplifier, a zero-crossing detection circuit, and a liquid crystal modulating pad. Electrical and optical characteristics of the zero-crossing SLM are presented along with experimental results of the system.

Date Published: 27 August 1993
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 1961, Visual Information Processing II, (27 August 1993); doi: 10.1117/12.150950

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1961:
Visual Information Processing II
Friedrich O. Huck; Richard D. Juday, Editor(s)