Anisotropic partial differential equation noise-reduction algorithm based on fringe feature for ESPI

Noise reduction is one of the most exciting problems in electronic speckle pattern interferometry. We present a new anisotropic partial differential equation noise-reduction algorithm based on fringe orientation for interferometric fringe patterns. The proposed equation performs diffusion along the two directions of fringe gradient and isophote line, which are extracted accurately according to fringe feature. By restriction of diffusion in the gradient direction of fringe patterns, this method can provide optimal results in denoising but does not destroy fringe edges. The experimental results show that this technique is more capable of significantly improving the quality of the fringe patterns than the classical anisotropic diffusion equation proposed by Perona and Malik. Based on our filtered fringe patterns, the phase map obtained by phase-shifting technique can be extracted more accurately. It is an effective pre-processing method for electronic speckle pattern interferometry. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.