Classification of time-domain waveforms using a speckle-based optical reservoir computer

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel optical reservoir computer using speckle patterns for multivariate audio classification, showing potential for scalable, chip-scale optical signal processing.

Contribution

It introduces a bulk optical speckle-based reservoir computer and validates its performance on a real audio classification task, bridging experimental demonstration and chip-scale simulation.

Findings

Successful multivariate audio classification using speckle-based reservoir computing

Optical reservoir performs comparably to numerical simulations

Potential for scalable, chip-scale optical signal processing

Abstract

Reservoir computing is a recurrent machine learning framework that expands the dimensionality of a problem by mapping an input signal into a higher-dimension reservoir space that can capture and predict features of complex, non-linear temporal dynamics. Here, we report on a bulk optical demonstration of an analog reservoir computer using speckles generated by propagating a laser beam modulated with a spatial light modulator through a multimode waveguide. We demonstrate that the hardware can successfully perform a multivariate audio classification task performed using the Japanese vowel speakers public data set. We perform full wave optical calculations of this architecture implemented in a chip-scale platform using an SiO2 waveguide and demonstrate that it performs as well as a fully numerical implementation of reservoir computing. As all the optical components used in the experiment can be fabricated using a commercial photonic integrated circuit foundry, our result demonstrates a framework for building a scalable, chip-scale, reservoir computer capable of performing optical signal processing.