When the reflected object beam and the reference beam are recombined, they create an interference pattern that encodes the 3-D image.

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Because the transforming and the filtering are done optically, this mechanism for pattern recognition is fast, allowing an image to be tested for the presence of a target in a single step.

ECONOMIST: Optical recognition

As if that wasn't enough, a whole slew of images of the camera have just surfaced on RiceHigh's Pentax Blog, along with a complete (but not exactly verifiable) spec list, which offers such details as a 3-inch VGA LCD, continuous JPEG shooting at 5.2 frames per second, a viewfinder with 100% image coverage, a new 77-Segment Multi-Pattern metering system, a built-in AF assist light, and an integrated HDR mode, among countless other features.

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After a sufficient number of attempts the pattern of weights stabilises and a particular sort of input (say an image of the digit 2, translated into electrons by a digital camera) reliably produces a particular sort of output.

ECONOMIST: Machine vision

In a 35-nanosecond burst of laser light, 4.3 megabytes of a color image are burned on a photosensitive DuPont polymer film, rearranging the chemistry into a zebra-striped interference pattern.

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