Abstract

An associative memory is capable of associative recall, generating at the output the associate of the input, retrieved from its global memory store. There are two main classes of associative recall, namely autoassociation and heteroassociation. Autoassociative recall is the ability of a system to retrieve a complete memory element at output when presented with only a small arbitary fragment at input. Heteroassociative recall is the ability to retrieve again a solitary memory element at output, but now sharing no structural similarity with its associate input [1]. It is the purpose of this presentation to describe an all optical system, with accompanying experimental results, which demonstrated the ability to recall by autoassociation.

© 1987 Optical Society of America