Experimental results from an optical implementation of a simple neural network

Much recent work in the field of optical computing has concentrated upon the parallel associative memory/neural network algorithms. The authors present results from an implementation of a simple neural network. An optically addressed spatial light modulator, the Hughes liquid crystal light valve (LCLV), is used to perform thresholding and thin amplitude computer generated holograms perform the weighted interconnections. Two 6-bit vectors and their complements were stored as the memories and the outputs for all the possible inputs were observed. These outputs were then compared to those obtained from a computer simulation of the system