Abstract

Correlation filter functions implemented with biphase-only modulators represent the state of the art in real-time programmable optical correlators for target recognition. High optical throughput, however, results at the expense of distortion-invariant performance. We present results of computer simulations and experiments using biphase-only modulation for the filter functions, which are designed to approximate the performance of correlation filters having both biphase and biamplitude modulation. Specifically, we investigated the effect of clutter in the input scene on correlation performance using these virtual amplitude filters and compared them with those for classical method filters and previous biphase-only filter designs.

© 1988 Optical Society of America