Mathematical morphology processor using ferroelectric liquid crystal light valves: principle.

We describe the principle of an optical digital processor for mathematical morphology (MM). The proposed central processing unit is based on binary logic using states of polarization and spatial data shift using geometric optics. Two dimensional Boolean operations are performed by means of logical gates using ferroelectric liquid crystal light valves, which are shown to be able to perform iterative processes well suited to MM operation implementation. A complete optical architecture is proposed from which the programming of elementary MM transformations is demonstrated.