Abstract: An optical memory for storing and/or reading data on an optical disk. The optical disk incorporates a material in which holographic gratings can be created at plural locations within the disk. An electro-optical head which is capable of creating these holographic gratings at any one of the plural locations is employed. The head is additionally capable of detecting the presence or absence of a holographic grating at any one of these plural locations. The presence of the holographic grating could indicate a first binary state and the absence of the holographic grating indicate a second state. Alternately, the electro-optical head could be used to vary the diffraction efficiency of the holographic gratings during their creation. In that case, the head would also be capable of detecting this variation in efficiency and produce a proportional detection signal. This signal would be used as an indicator of the value of the stored data element.

Abstract: A method and a compact apparatus to read shift-multiplexed holograms on a storage medium without the need for any lenses, and without the need for moving the storage medium. The shift-multiplexed holograms have centers at different locations. The apparatus can generate an array of diverging spherical waves of reference beams, each for illuminating one of the holograms. Each hologram is read as an image on a detector array by illuminating that hologram with a corresponding diverging spherical wave of reference beam. Different holograms can be read by illuminating the medium with a different diverging spherical reference beam. The diverging beams can be from an array of sources, or can be from switching one source.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method for recognizing the gesture of the image of a player by identifying a gesture from a set of specific pre-defined gestures. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of retrieving a background image that does not include the player's image, and a current image that includes the player's image and at least a portion of the background image. Then the method removes at least a portion of the background image from the current image to generate the player's image, which is mapped directly to a number of templates to generate a number of template outputs. Finally, the method analyzes the template outputs to identify the specific pre-defined gesture that corresponds to the gesture in the image.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus to reconfigure a programmable logic device on a chip. The device includes a number of configurable elements. The methods include the steps of retrieving reconfiguration data pre-stored in a memory device located apart from the chip, and transferring the retrieved reconfiguration data in parallel to each of the configurable elements. One approach pre-stores the data in holograms.

Abstract: A method and a compact apparatus to read shift-multiplexed holograms on a storage medium without the need for any lenses, and without the need for moving the storage medium. The shift-multiplexed holograms have centers at different locations. The apparatus can generate an array of diverging spherical waves of reference beams, each for illuminating one of the holograms. Each hologram is read as an image on a detector array by illuminating that hologram with a corresponding diverging spherical wave of reference beam. Different holograms can be read by illuminating the medium with a different diverging spherical reference beam. The diverging beams can be from an array of sources, or can be from switching one source.

Abstract: A method and a system to re-align onto a detector array a holographic image of a Fourier region hologram stored in a medium, with the medium spinning around a first axis, and the hologram being generated by a reference beam and a signal beam. In generating the hologram, the reference beam is incident on the medium with respect to a second axis at a second-axis-incident angle, and a third axis at a third-axis-incident angle, such that the holographic image of the hologram when reproduced by the reference beam is aligned onto the detector array. Also, the three axes are substantially orthogonal to each other. As the medium spins, the medium's orientation can change through tilting with respect to the second and the third axes so that the holographic image when reproduced by the reference beam is not aligned onto the detector array.