Optical associative memory

Claim 1

AN OPTICAL INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION: A SOURCE OF MONOCHROMATIC, COHERENT LIGHT; A STORAGE MEMBER COMPRISING A CRYSTAL OF A MATERIAL SEMITRANSPARENT FOR LIGHT FROM SAID SOURCE AND BLEACHABLE BY INCIDENT LIGHT; MEANS FOR DIRECTING A FIRST BEAM OF LIGHT FROM SAID SOURCE TOWARD SAID STORAGE MEMBER AND CAUSING SAID BEAM TO CONVERGE TOWARD A POINT EXTERIOR OF SAID MEMBER; MEANS AT SAID POINT FOR ABSORBING SAID LIGHT; MEANS INCLUDING AN INFORMATION-CONTAINING, LIGHT-DIFFRACTING IMAGE DISPOSED IN THE PATH OF SAID CONVERGING FIRST BEAM; MEANS FOR DIRECTING A SECOND BEAM OF LIGHT COHERENT WITH SAID FIRST BEAM TOWARD SAID MEMBER IN A DIRECTION TRANSVERSE TO SAID FIRST BEAM TO INTERSECT WITH LIGHT FROM SAID FIRST BEAM WITHIN SAID MEMBER; THE LAST-MENTIONED MEANS INCLUDING DEFLECTION MEANS IN THE PATH OF SAID SECOND BEAM FOR VARYING THE DIRECTION OF SAID SECOND BEAM WITH RESPECT TO SAID STORAGE MEMBER; MEANS ON THE SIDE OF SAID MEMBER OPPOSITE SAID DEFLECTION MEANS IN THE PATH OF SAID SECOND BEAM FOR DIRECTING SAID SECOND BEAM TO A FOCUS AT A POINT ON A SURFACE, THE POSITION OF THE LAST-MENTIONED POINT ON SAID SURFACE BEING VARIABLE BY SAID DEFLECTION MEANS; MEANS AT SAID SURFACE FOR SENSING THE POSITION OF A POINT LIGHT IMAGE AT SAID SURFACE AND CAUSING SAID DEFLECTION MEANS TO LOCATE THE FOCUS OF SAID SECOND BEAM AT SAID POSITION ON SAID SURFACE; AND MEANS IN THE PATH OF SAID FIRST BEAM TO THE SIDE OF SAID MEMBER OPPOSITE SAID LIGHT-DIFFRACTING IMAGE FOR SENSING A PATTERN OF LIGHT REPRESENTING INFORMATION DERIVED FROM SAID STORAGE MEMBER.