A matched amplification correlator transforms input images projecting a real time hologram upon a holographic storage device and a spatial light modulator, optically coupled to the storage device, modulates the hologram with a correlation filter, and the modulated signal is Fourier transformed to produce an output correlation signal. Alternatively, Fourier transforms of beams bearing the signals to be correlated are projected upon a beam controlled semi-conductor absorption modulator for selectively switching the Fourier transform of the noisy cluttered image through the device, and a spatial light modulator, modulates the hologram with a correlation filter, and the transform produces an output correlation signal. These compact adaptive, noise robust correlators can be made as small as one cubic centimeter. In a correlation system of exemplary figure one, nearly one hundred million correlations per second (0.1 Ghz) are possible. Front end components of the correlators can be used to clean noisy images.
Matched amplification and switch joint transform correlator