Method and apparatus for optically processing seismic data using spatial filtering techniques

Claim 1

AN APPARATUS FOR THE ENHANCEMENT AND ANALYSIS OF SPATIALLY DISPLAYED INPUT DATA COMPRISING THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS: (A) A SOURCE OF SUBSTANTIALLY COHERENT LIGHT, (B) A LENS ARRAY FOCUSING SAID LIGHT ON A PIN HOLE APERTURE, (C) LENS MEANS TO RECEIVE AND COLLIMATE SAID LIGHT WHICH PASSES THROUGH SAID PIN HOLE APERTURE TO FORM A COLLIMATED BEAM, (D) MEANS FOR DIVIDING SAID COLLIMATED BEAM INTO TWO ESSENTIALLY EQUIVALENT BEAMS, (E) MEANS TO SPATIALLY MODULATE EACH OF SAID EQUIVALENT LIGHT BEAMS IN ACCORDANCE WITH SAID SPATIALLY DISPLAYED INPUT DATA, (F) LENS MEANS IN THE LIGHT PATH OF EACH OF SAID MODULATED EQUIVALENT BEAMS TO FORM SEPARATE FOURIER TRANSFORMERS OF EACH OF SAID BEAMS, (G) OPTICAL MEANS IN AT LEAST ONE OF SAID LIGHT PATHS TO ATTENUATE AT LEAST APORTION OF AT LEAST ONE OF SAID FOURIER TRANSFORMS, (H) MEANS IN EACH OF SAID LIGHT PATHS TO RECONSTRUCT A SEPARATE IMAGE OF EACH OF SAID TRANSFORMS, AND (I) OPTICAL MEANS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY VIEWING BOTH OF SAID RECONSTRUCTED IMAGES.