Feature

Optical Neural Networks

Demitri Psaltis and Yong Quio

The optical implementation of artificial neural networks is a subject that combines optics and neural networks. The notion that links the two fields is connectionism. In optical computers, photons are used instead of electrons as the carriers of information. The advantage of doing this derives from the fact that photons do not directly interact with one another. This makes it easier to establish a communication network connecting a large number of processing elements. Therefore, the design of optical computers is naturally guided toward architectures that require many connections.