Scientists are exploring light in entirely new ways with the creation of a “light-powered brain,” capable of recognizing hidden information within patterns of light—a breakthrough that could help transform future communications and quantum technologies.
The research was conducted by Dr. Isaac Nape and Professor Andrew Forbes at Wits University’s Structured Light Laboratory. Led by MSc student Hadrian Bezuidenhout, the team also included researchers Cade Peters and Ram Nandan Kumar, who drew on principles from artificial intelligence (AI) and physics to investigate how light can process and reveal information without requiring complex computer calculations or highly detailed images.
Light and Information
Light can carry information through structured patterns and other properties, including its wavelength. However, interpreting these patterns and understanding how they change as they travel through communication systems can be challenging.
“Creating light patterns that form a large alphabet for communications is only useful if we can read them as fast as we can create them,” says Nape, the Optica Emerging Leader in Optics Chair and a Fellow of the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute.
To address this challenge, the Wits research team developed an optical system capable of identifying meaningful features within patterns of light, even when their visible appearance changes.
“Our work offers a simpler way to do that, picking out the information we need without first taking a detailed picture,” Nape said. “This could help turn these unusual light structures into practical carriers of information for future communication systems.”
Topology
One important concept explored by the team involves topology, a branch of mathematics concerned with properties that remain unchanged when an object is continuously stretched, bent, or otherwise deformed without being cut or torn.
Structured light can exhibit similar properties, allowing researchers to encode information into patterns that remain recognizable even when their appearance changes. For their research, the Wits team developed a system that uses light itself to identify these hidden features.
For example, imagine twisting a ribbon and then bending it into different shapes. Although its overall appearance changes, the number of twists can remain the same. Similarly, certain properties of structured light can remain unchanged even when the light’s visible pattern is distorted.
The researchers designed an optical system that passes light through a series of layers, directing it toward detectors. The location where the light reaches these detectors provides information about the underlying structure of the original pattern.
“We don’t need to map every crease in our fabric of light to count the twists. Our network picks out the information that matters and helps us identify the topology quickly,” Bezuidenhout said, describing the technique.
After learning from just 15 examples, the light-powered system was able to identify 81 different light structures, including patterns it had never encountered before. It also maintained its performance when researchers introduced noise into the detector, suggesting that the technique could reliably extract information even under less-than-ideal conditions.
The power of AI and physics combined
The new research demonstrates how artificial intelligence and physics can work together to advance information-processing technologies.
“This research is a wonderful example of what becomes possible when we bring together ideas from artificial intelligence and fundamental physics,” says Professor Benjamin Rosman, Director of the MIND Institute. “By embedding neural network principles directly into the behaviour of light, the team is opening up new possibilities for how we process information. It also demonstrates the enormous potential of interdisciplinary research, which is central to what we are building at the MIND Institute.”
“We hope this is just the beginning. Beyond topology, we want to explore how optical intelligence can contribute to quantum technologies in South Africa,” Nape added. “Extracting information from individual particles of light presents even greater measurement challenges, and we are excited to investigate how these tools could help us tackle them.”
Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and the founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on YouTube and on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton, Instagram: @BeingChrissyNewton, and chrissynewton.com. To contact Chrissy with a story, please email chrissy @ thedebrief.org.