"We are all trying to do the same thing and there is a finite amount of money out there," says Carnegie Mellon Professor David Casasent, who also works in the field.
New Technology
While the concept of optics computing has existed for many years, only recently have technological advances in semi-conductors, lasers, and glass technology, brought scientists to within range of attaining their goals.
Under Jones's plans, information would be processed inside a computer by a complicated pattern of optic signalling between circuits containing bits of information.
"In information processing, we'll be able to make anything we want within five or 10 years," says Jones. "But the real question is 'what will help us the most?"
The computer would also have a major impact on robotics, through its ability to imitate how the human eye transmits messages to the brain.
Other applications include the uniquc ability to compare and analyze large volumes of complex data and present it in diagrammatic form.
Impact
The subject will have an enormous impact. Jones says adding that five years ago people would have called this a fantasy."