Abstract
This paper reports a method for three-dimensional (3D) analysis of shift-invariant pattern recognition and applies to holographic images digitally reconstructed from holographic microscopes. It is shown that the sequential application of a 2D filter to the plane-by-plane reconstruction of an optical field is exactly equivalent to the application of a more general filter with a 3D impulse response. We show that any 3D filters with arbitrary impulse response can be implemented in this way. This type of processing is applied to the two-class problem of distinguishing different types of bacteria. It is shown that the proposed technique can be easily implemented using a modified microscope to develop a powerful and cost-effective system with great potential for biological screening.