CONTROLLER FOR PROVIDING A CLASSIFICATION OF SENSOR DATA FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE BY MEANS OF AN OPTICAL NEURAL NETWORK, AND METHOD FOR OPERATING THE CONTROLLER

The invention relates to a controller (2) for providing a classification of sensor data for a motor vehicle (1) by means of an optical neural network (14) and to a method for operating the controller (2). The controller (2) comprises the optical neural network (14) and is designed: to provide optically coded sensor data; to evaluate the provided optically coded sensor data (36) by means of the optical neural network (14), the optical neural network (14) having multiple optical neurons (16) with electromagnetically induced transparency properties, and, as a result of the evaluation by means of an evaluation device (24) of the optical neural network (14), to provide optically coded classification information (37) which describes the classification of the sensor data; to convert the optically coded classification information (37) into electronically coded classification information (33) by means of a conversion device (32) of the controller (2); and to provide the electronically coded classification information (37) for the motor vehicle (1).