We present a three-dimensional (3-D) optical image matching technique and location extraction techniques of matched 3-D objects for optical pattern recognition. We first describe the 3-D matching technique based on two-pupil optical heterodyne scanning. A hologram of the 3-D reference object is first created and then represented as one pupil function with the other pupil function being a delta function. The superposition of each beam modulated by the two pupils generates a scanning beam pattern. This beam pattern scans the 3-D target object to be recognized. The output of the scanning system gives out the 2-D correlation of the hologram of the reference object and that of the target object. When the 3-D image of the target object is matched with that of the reference object, the output of the system generates a strong correlation peak. This theory of 3-D holographic matching is analyzed in terms of two-pupil optical scanning. Computer simulation and optical experiment results are presented to reinforce the developed theory.

The second part of the research concerns the extraction of the location of a 3-D image matched object. The proposed system basically performs a correlation of the hologram of a 3-D reference object and that of a 3-D target object, and hence 3-D matching is possible. However, the system does not give out the depth location of matched 3-D target objects directly because the correlation of holograms is a 2-D correlation and hence not 3-D shift invariant. We propose two methods to extract the location of matched 3-D objects directly from the correlation output of the system. One method is to use the optical system that focuses the output correlation pattern along depth and arrives at the 3-D location at the focused location. However, this technique has a drawback in that only the location of 3-D targets that are farther away from the 3-D reference object can be extracted. Thus, in this research, we propose another method in which the extraction of a location for a matched 3-D object is possible without the aforementioned drawback. This method applies the Wigner distribution to the power fringe-adjusted filtered correlation output to extract the 3-D location of a matched object. We analyze the proposed method and present computer simulation and optical experiment results.