Moores law basically states that computing performance doubles every 18 months. While this has held true for approximately 40 years, it is widely believed that this will soon come to an end (although, the actual time frame is a subject of debate). Increases in performance tend to coincide with decreases in scale on the computer platform. Due to the small scale of todays computer components, both classical and quantum interference effects are starting to play a role in the development of new components. Even, if the interference is ignored, there is a physical limit to how small a classical computer can be made. This implies that there is also a limit to how fast a classical computer can become. Barring any unforeseen inventions, many people speculate that this threshold will be reached within the next 20 years. Quantum computation offers a potential solution to the eventual failure of Moores law. Quantum computers use quantum mechanics to perform computations instead of classical physics. As such, they are not constrained by the size issue related to classical computers. Various researchers (such as Shor, Grover, and Deutsch) have already shown that efficient quantum algorithms exist and can perform (at least) some calculations significantly faster than classical computers. Quantum computers require very different algorithms than classical computers, so the challenge of quantum computation is to develop efficient quantum algorithms for more useful applications. Cybernet is creating a quantum image processing toolkit that will serve as the foundation for quantum systems that perform important, low-level, image-processing functions within the military (such as target tracking, video based navigation, etc.).

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