Cloud Hosting

UCLA researchers have unveiled a new optical computing method that can replace traditional techniques for performing permutation operations. The proposed technique effectively performs an optical permutation leveraging only passive hardware, removing the need for advanced signal processing and potentially saving power.

Optical computing is not an inherently new concept, with researchers in academia and industry working toward more efficient and high-performance optical devices. The UCLA device, however, uses multiple layers of passive diffraction materialsto encrypt a signal before transmission.

The UCLA researchers designedmultiple layers of diffraction materials, each optimized with different phase values to focus the light at distinct points. The resulting output beams appeared shuffled compared to the input, requiring an inverse operation before the data could be used.

In addition to its optimized diffraction materials, the device enabled each layer to be rotated, further increasing the number of permutation states available. As a result, incident light rays could be permuted without consuming any electronic computing resources.

A similar concept exists in quantitative phase imaging, where image information is stored in the phase instead of the amplitude of the light rays. Applied to encryption, the optimized UCLA devices can not only shuffle data but alsorecover that same data by applying the inverse transform upon reception.

A permutation operation takes an ordered set of data, like an image or bitstream, and shuffles its members into a new set of data. While the new set still contains the same information that can be easily recovered by applying an inverse permutation, it becomes extremely difficult to recover any useful information without knowing the details behind the original permutation.

Inan image, the permutation operation will effectively shuffle each individual pixel while remaining within the same bounds of the image. So, while each pixel remains at the same magnitude and color in a different location, the resulting image after permutation appears to contain no useful information. This is a basic form of encryption and allows secure messages to be sent between parties who know the details behind the permutation.

Traditionally electronic hardware or software achieve this permutation. In the case of software, the CPU can manually shuffle data given the permutation matrix, all the while consuming power and occupying a CPU core. Hardware-based permutation is much faster, but still takes some timeto shuffle the input data. A method of performing a permutation in the optical domain, as the UCLA researchers pursued,can save power and speed up the operation.

Although the UCLA device is still in its infancy, the preliminary results show potential use cases, from telecommunications to data security. Furthermore, if the inverse permutation can be applied in the optical domain as well, the UCLA diffraction-based permutation could enhance securityas a physical encryption/decryption key pair.

While optical computers may not replace traditional computers in every setting, with the help of researchers like those at UCLA, optics-based computers are slowly becoming more applicable to engineering applications.

Link:
UCLA Team Creates Optical Computing Method for Processing and Encryption - All About Circuits