A novel high-speed opto-electronic hybrid correlator for recognition and tracking

Abstract

Opto-electronic hybrid correlator can realize the combination of electronic flexibility and high speed of optical computing, so it has widely potential applications in high speed optical information processing system, especially recognition and tracking system. But the opto-electronic conversion speed and the positioning accuracy of correlation peak constrains the performance of this system. This paper first proposes an idea that PSD(Position Sensitive Device) can be applied in optical correlation peak detection instead of traditional CMOS/CCD sensor. It is displayed by theoretical analysis that this system can attain a correlation calculation speed of 20,000 frames per second, which indicates that the system can satisfy high speed demands of target recognition and tracking. Through optimal design of Fourier lens, the size, shape and intensity of the correlation peak spot have been optimized to satisfy the positioning accuracy requirement of PSD. The property of PSD can lead to nonlinear displacement error of the correlation peak and this paper use a linear line to fit the experimental outcome. Besides, this paper introduce the definition positioning accuracy, which is defined the maximum deviation apart from fitting linear outcome. The positioning accuracy of the novel opto-electronic hybrid correlator is calculated approximate 10 pixels (0.04mm), which is small enough to satisfy the demand of recognizing and tracking a target. In conclusion, a high speed and high accuracy recognition and tracking system has been realized based on the opto-electronic hybrid correlator.