Optical Processing of Bubble Chamber Photographs

The processing of bubble chamber photographs has emerged as a major task in the experimental study of sub-atomic decays and interactions. Although electronic computer techniques have proved useful in reconstructing the geometry and ascertaining the kinematics of high-energy events, the scanning and measuring of bubble chamber photographs has remained for the most part unautomated. An alternate approach to the computerization of the scan-measure task is through the newly developed optical computer, a device which accepts input data on photographic film and thus obviates the need for digitizing photographs before processing. The optical computer can aid the scan-measure task by suppressing beam tracks, measuring track widths, and determining scattering angles.