  Reservoir computing is a new, powerful and flexible machine learning
technique that is easily implemented in hardware. Recently, by using a
time-multiplexed architecture, hardware reservoir computers have reached
performance comparable to digital implementations. Operating speeds allowing
for real time information operation have been reached using optoelectronic
systems. At present the main performance bottleneck is the readout layer which
uses slow, digital postprocessing. We have designed an analog readout suitable
for time-multiplexed optoelectronic reservoir computers, capable of working in
real time. The readout has been built and tested experimentally on a standard
benchmark task. Its performance is better than non-reservoir methods, with
ample room for further improvement. The present work thereby overcomes one of
the major limitations for the future development of hardware reservoir
computers.
