Optical neural network could lead to intelligent cameras

UCLA engineers have made major improvements on their design of an optical neural network -a device inspired by how the human brain works - that can identify objects or process information at the speed of light. The development could lead to intelligent camera systems that figure out what they are seeing simply by the patterns of light that run through a 3D engineered material structure. Their new design takes advantage of the parallelization and scalability of optical-based computational systems. For example, such systems could be incorporated into self-driving cars or robots, helping them make near-instantaneous decisions faster and using less power than computer-based systems that need additional time to identify an object after it's been seen. The technology was first introduced by the UCLA group in 2018.