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A hybrid optical/electronic system performs median filtering and related ranked-order operations using threshold decomposition to encode the image. Threshold decomposition transforms the nonlinear neighborhood ranking operation into a linear space-invariant filtering step followed by a point-to-point threshold comparison step. Spatial multiplexing allows parallel processing of all the threshold components as well as recombination by a second linear space-invariant filtering step. An incoherent optical correlation system performs the linear filtering, using a magnetooptic spatial light modulator as the input device and a computergenerated hologram in the filter plane. Thresholding is done electronically. By adjusting the value of the threshold, the same architecture is used to perform median, minimum, and maximum filtering of images.

A modified binary synthetic discriminant function filter designed to recognize objects over a range of rotated views has been verified on a laboratory optical correlator. A binary synthetic discriminant function filter has been previously described that will produce a specified correlation response for a set of training images. [See D. A. Jared and D. J. Ennis, "Inclusion of Filter Modulation in Synthetic-Discriminant-Function Construction," Appl. Opt. 28, 232-239 (1989).] In the filter design, the modulation characteristics of the device onto which the filter is mapped are included in the synthesis equations. The system of nonlinear equations is then solved using an iteration procedure based on the Newton-Raphson algorithm. The development of the filter-SDF (fSDF) method was driven by the practical concern to make currently available spatial light modulators with limited modulation capabilities functional for distortion invariant pattern recognition. This technique is used to synthesize filters for a binary magnetooptic spatial light modulator (MOSLM), the Sight-MOD produced by Semetex. Two MOSLMs are used in the laboratory correlator, one in the filter plane and one in the input plane. We demonstrate that a single filter produces equal correlation peaks for a sample object (a Shuttle Orbiter in these tests) over in-plane and out-of-plane rotation ranges up to 75 degrees . The correlator is able to track dynamically the shuttle as it moves along a curved path across the input field. Views of the object in between those in the training set are also recognized when training images are sufficiently close in angle (~5 degrees apart).