Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg have developed a ‘light-powered brain’ that can recognise information hidden in complex light patterns. The work, published in Nature Communications, combines expertise in artificial intelligence and physics and could help enable faster communication systems.
Light can carry information in the way it is structured. The system passes light through specially designed layers towards detectors, and where the light lands reveals the information it carries, without the need for a detailed image or intensive processing.
After training on just 15 examples, the system recognised 81 light structures in the family studied, including patterns it had never seen, and kept working when noise was introduced into the detector. The research, carried out at the Wits Structured Light Laboratory, was conceived and supervised by Isaac Nape and Andrew Forbes and led by MSc student Hadrian Bezuidenhout.
The authors suggest the approach could be applied to quantum technologies, particularly the measurement of individual particles of light.
