This book was written to satisfy a variety of needs. First, it is intended to provide
an updated summary of the present status of optical data processing: what it has
accomplished, what it can accomplish, and how it accomplishes these things. We
feel that this presentation of an updated summary is best achieved by treating
different applications of optical data processing. A commonality o f fundamental
tools and operations is used in all cases. These cases are adequately treated in
many textbooks and highlighted here in Chapter 1. Since the objective of optical
data processing is to apply fundamental techniques to the solution of specific
problems, a discussion of specific applications seems appropriate.