Time-domain image processing using photonic reservoir computing

Abstract

Photonic computing has attracted much attention due to its great potential to accelerate artificial neural network operations. However, the processing of a large amount of data, such as image data, basically requires large-scale photonic circuits and is still challenging due to its low scalability of the photonic integration. Here, we propose a scalable image processing approach, which uses a temporal degree of freedom of photons. In the proposed approach, the spatial information of a target object is compressively transformed to a time-domain signal using a gigahertz-rate random pattern projection technique. The time-domain signal is optically acquired at a single-input channel and processed with a microcavity-based photonic reservoir computer. We experimentally demonstrate that this photonic approach is capable of image recognition at gigahertz rates.