A classification sensor based on compressed optical Radon transform

We present a thin-film sensor that optically measures the Radon transform of an image focussed onto it. Measuring and classifying directly in Radon space, rather than in image space, is fast and yields robust and high classification rates. We explain how the number of integral measurements required for a given classification task can be reduced by several orders of magnitude. Our experiments achieve classification rates of 98%-99% for complex hand gesture and motion detection tasks with as few as 10 photosensors. Our findings have the potential to stimulate further research towards a new generation of application-oriented classification sensors for use in areas such as biometry, security, diagnostics, surface inspection, and human-computer interfaces.