Incoherent optical processing: A tristimulus-based approach

Optical systems which make use of incoherent illumination provide potential benefits in noise immunity over systems using coherent illumination. Because incoherent systems are linear with respect to intensity, however, complex number operations must be synthesized. The tristimulus (three-color) methods used in color television provide vector-space models that allow the complex number operations of polar-form multiplication and rectangular-form addition to be achieved, using incoherent illumination. When these operations are combined in a hybrid (optical-electronic) processor that uses color television equipment, general space-variant optical systems can be approximated by a sampled-form approach.