Integrated photonic encoding systems and methods for high speed and low power image processing

1 . A photonic processing system, comprising:

an optical encoder;

a photonic processor in optical communication with the optical encoder; and

an optical receiver in optical communication with the photonic processor;

wherein the optical encoder is configured to encode an input vector into first optical signals;

wherein the photonic processor includes a scattering region having scattering centers, wherein a refractive index of the scattering centers is different than a refractive index of a material of a remainder of the scattering region and is configured to:

receive the first optical signals;

perform an optical scattering on the first optical signals to form second optical signals, the optical scattering implementing a matrix multiplication of the input vector by a quasi-random matrix; and

output the second optical signals representing an output vector; and

wherein the optical receiver is configured to detect at least a portion of the second optical signals and output an electrical representation of the output vector; and

wherein the scattering centers are cylindrical voids extending through a thickness of the photonic processor, wherein the cylindrical voids have a refractive index of about 1, and wherein the refractive index of the material comprising the photonic processor is greater than 1.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the scattering region is an inverse designed photonic structure that is configured to implement the matrix multiplication of the input vector by the quasi-random matrix.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the photonic processor comprises a spreading region and a scattering region, wherein the spreading region is configured to spread the first optical signals into third optical signals, wherein the scattering region is configured to scatter the third optical signals into the second optical signals.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the third optical signals comprise multi-modal light, wherein the third optical signals form a speckle pattern, and further wherein the speckle pattern is incident substantially across a width of an end of the scattering region.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first optical signals comprise single-mode light including a predefined wavelength.

6 . The system of claim 5 , further comprising a photonic crystal disposed along a side of the photonic processor, wherein the photonic crystal supports a band gap approximately at the predefined wavelength.

7 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the optical encoder comprises a plurality of optical signal modulators, the system further comprising waveguides in optical communication with the optical signal modulators and the photonic processor, wherein the waveguides are configured to transmit the first optical signals from the optical signal modulators to the photonic processor.

8 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising an output port having spatial regions, wherein the portion of the second optical signals corresponds to one of the spatial regions.

9 . A photonic processing system, comprising:

an optical encoder;

a photonic processor in optical communication with the optical encoder; and

an optical receiver in optical communication with the photonic processor;

wherein the optical encoder is configured to encode an input vector into first optical signals;

an output port having spatial regions;

wherein the photonic processor is configured to:

receive the first optical signals;

perform an optical scattering on the first optical signals to form second optical signals, the optical scattering implementing a matrix multiplication of the input vector by a quasi-random matrix; and

output the second optical signals representing an output vector; and

wherein the optical receiver is configured to detect at least a portion of the second optical signals and output an electrical representation of the output vector,

wherein:

the quantity of optical receivers corresponds to at least one of a size of the output vector or the quantity of spatial regions;

the quantity of optical signal modulators corresponds to at least one of a size of the input vector or a size of the quasi-random matrix; and

a ratio of the quantity of the optical signal modulators to the quantity of the optical receivers corresponds to a compression ratio; and

wherein the portion of the second optical signals corresponds to one of the spatial regions.

10 . A method for photonically processing data, the method comprising:

encoding an input vector into first optical signals;

performing an optical scattering of the first optical signals to form second optical signals, the optical scattering implementing a matrix multiplication of the input vector by a quasi-random matrix;

detecting at least a portion of the second optical signals representing an output vector; and

encoding the second optical signals in an electrical representation of the output vector; encoding a second input vector into third optical signals;

performing an optical scattering of the third optical signals to form fourth optical signals, the optical scattering implementing a matrix multiplication of the second input vector by the quasi-random matrix;

detecting the fourth optical signals representing a second output vector; and

encoding the fourth optical signals in an electrical representation of the second output vector;

wherein the second input vector corresponds to second pixels comprising a second pixel block of the source image;

wherein the pixel block and the second pixel block are non-overlapping;

wherein:

elements of the input vector correspond to pixels in a source image,

the pixels comprise a pixel block of the source image, and

the source image comprises pixel blocks.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the optical scattering comprises spreading the first optical signals to form third optical signals and scattering the third optical signals to form the second optical signals, further wherein the first optical signals comprise single-mode light and the third optical signals comprise multimodal light.

12 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

decoding the electrical representation of the output vector to generate a first reconstructed pixel block;

decoding the electrical representation of the second output vector to generate a second reconstructed pixel block; and

combining the first reconstructed pixel block and the second reconstructed pixel block to generate a reconstructed image,

wherein the reconstructed image includes fewer pixels than the source image.

13 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising at least one of:

conditioning at least one of the electrical representations of the output vectors;

conditioning at least one of the reconstructed pixel blocks; and

conditioning the reconstructed image.