南开大学现代光学研究所较早地开展了用光学方法实现人工神经网络的工作。1991年12月,在全国第二届神经网络学术大会上,该所宣读了有关用于多个三维物体分类识别的光学神经网络的两篇论文。这项工作成功地解决了对四种飞行器:轰炸机、火箭、客机、战斗机的容错性和空间旋转不变性的模式识别问题。 Nankai University Institute of Modern Optics earlier carried out using optical methods to achieve artificial neural network work. In December 1991, at the Second National Academic Conference on Neural Networks, the institute read two essays on optical neural networks for the classification and recognition of multiple three-dimensional objects. This work successfully solved the problem of pattern recognition on the four types of aircraft: bomber, rocket, passenger aircraft, fighter aircraft fault tolerance and space rotation invariance.