Pattern recognition with a digital holographic microscope working in partially coherent illumination

We describe the implementation of the automatic spatial-frequency-selection filter for recognition of patterns obtained with a digital holographic microscope working with a partially coherent source. The microscope provides the complex-optical-amplitude field that allows a refocusing plane-by-plane of the sample under investigation by numerical computation of the optical propagation. By inserting a correlation filter in the propagation equation, the correlation between the filter and the propagated optical field is obtained. In this way, the pattern is located in the direction of the optical axis. Owing to the very weak noise level generated by the partially coherent source, the correlation process is shift invariant. Therefore the samples can be located in the three dimensions. To have a robust recognition process, a generalized version of the automatic spatial-frequency-selection filters has been implemented. The method is experimentally demonstrated in a two-class problem for the recognition of protein crystals. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.