A fast, accurate phase unwrapping method for wavelet-transform profilometry

A novel phase unwrapping method used in wavelet-transform profilometry is presented to improve the accuracy and speed of the unwrapping process. The wrapped phase of the fringe image is extracted by using wavelet transform. How to establish quality map using scale factor at wavelet ridge is discussed firstly. The proposed method can reflect the reliability of the pixels in fringe image effectively. As the consuming time of traditional flood-fill phase unwrapping algorithm is too long, an improved quality-guided method is used in phase unwrapping process. We divide the wrapped phase map into two levels following the established quality map, and process these two levels using different algorithms. Compared with the traditional flood-fill algorithm, we can get the accurate result while the consuming time of the phase unwrapping process is much less by using the proposed method. Simulation and experiment results verify that the 3D information of the measured object can be obtained rapidly and accurately by using the proposed method. Also the dynamic object can be measured too. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.