Abstract

The fractional Fourier transform (FRT) has recently been developed as a generalized form of the conventional Fourier transform[1]. Since the FRT can represent both the spatial-domain and frequency-domain information, the fractional correlator(FC) on the basis of the FRT operation is known as one of powerful approaches to obtain space-variant pattern recognition[2]. The space-variant property of FRT can make correlation peaks which are much brighter and narrower than the exact Fourier transform-based correlation peaks. This space-variance of the fractional correlation, however, requires high accuracy in alignment and robust stability in maintenance.

© 1997 Optical Society of America