All-optical perception based on partially coherent optical neural networks

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In the field of image processing, optical neural networks offer advantages such as high speed, high throughput, and low energy consumption. However, most existing coherent optical neural networks (CONN) rely on coherent light sources to establish transmission models. The use of laser inputs and electro-optic modulation devices at the front end of these neural networks diminishes their computational capability and energy efficiency, thereby limiting their practical applications in object detection tasks. This paper proposes a partially coherent optical neural network (PCONN) transmission model based on mutual intensity modulation. This model does not depend on coherent light source inputs or active electro-optic modulation devices, allowing it to directly compute and infer using natural light after simple filtering, thus achieving full optical perception from light signal acquisition to computation and inference. Simulation results indicate that the model achieves a highest classification accuracy of 96.80% and 86.77% on the MNIST and Fashion-MNIST datasets, respectively. In a binary classification simulation test based on the ISDD segmentation dataset, the model attained an accuracy of 94.69%. It is estimated that this system’s computational inference speed for object detection tasks is 100 times faster than that of traditional CONN, with energy efficiency approximately 50 times greater. In summary, our proposed PCONN model addresses the limitations of conventional optical neural networks in coherent light environments and is anticipated to find applications in practical object detection scenarios.