OPTICAL PATTERN RECOGNITION APPARATUS WITH COORDINATE CONVERSION FUNCTION

An optical pattern recognition apparatus has an optical coordinate converter unit which simultaneously and in parallel converts an entered reference image and an entered input image from an entered coordinate system to a desired coordinate system to produce a coordinate-converted reference image and a coordinate-converted input image. A joint transform correlator receives the coordinate-converted reference image and the coordinate-converted input image and generates a correlation coefficient between the coordinate-converted reference image and the coordinate-converted input image so that a correlation between each entered reference and each entered input image is obtained to effect pattern recognition in real time. A feedback circuit normalizes the generated correlation coefficient between the coordinate-converted reference image and the coordinate-converted input image with a maximum correlation coefficient. The feedback circuit changes a subsequently generated correlation coefficient between the coordinate-converted reference image and the coordinate-converted input image depending on the normalized correlation coefficient so that, if the coordinate-converted reference image is obtained from a plurality of entered reference images, a particular entered reference image having the highest correlation with the entered input image is systematically obtained.