Area modulation grating for sinusoidal structure illumination on phase-measuring profilometry

Sinusoidal structured illumination is used widely in three-dimensional (3-D) sensing and machine vision. Phase algorithms, for example, in phase-measuring profilometry, are inherently free of errors only with perfect sinusoidal fringe projection. But it is difficult to produce a perfect sinusoidal grating. We propose a new concept, area modulation, to improve the sinusoidality of structured illumination. A binary-coded picture is made up of many micrometer units. An aperture is open in every micrometer unit, and its area is determined by the value of the sinusoidal function. When such a grating is projected onto an object surface, the image of the grating becomes sinusoidal because of the convolution function of an optical system. We have designed and manufactured an area modulation grating for sinusoidal structure illumination using a large-scale integration technique. The area modulation grating has been used in the high-precision phase-measuring profilometry system, and the phase errors caused by the area modulation grating are reduced to 0.1%. The grating guaranteed the entire measuring accuracy to a 1% equivalent wavelength. The experimental results proved that area modulation grating would be of significant help in improving the phase-measurement accuracy of the 3-D sensing system.     

Intensity range extension method for three-dimensional shape measurement in phase-measuring profilometry using a digital micromirror device camera

Phase-measuring profilometry is an accurate and effective technique for performing three-dimensional (3D) shape and deformation measurements of diffuse objects by fringe projection. However, phase analysis cannot be performed in underexposed or overexposed areas of the detector when an object with wide reflectance is measured. A novel intensity range extension method using a digital micromirror device (DMD) camera is proposed. In the optics of the DMD camera, each pixel of the CCD corresponds exactly to each mirror of the DMD. The phase-shifted fringe patterns with high contrast can be easily captured by programming an inverse intensity pattern that depends on the reflectance of the object. Our method can provide a wider intensity range and higher accuracy for 3D shape measurement than other conventional methods in both underexposed and overexposed areas. The measurements of a replica of a metallic art object and a flat plane are analyzed experimentally to verify the effectiveness of our method. In the experiment, the percentage of invalid points due to underexposure and overexposure can be reduced from 20% to 1%.     

Measurement of the modulation transfer function of digital X-ray detectors with an opaque edge-test device

A variant of the edge method for the determination of the pre-sampled modulation transfer function (MTF) of digital X-ray imaging devices has been developed and accepted as the standard method in the novel DQE measurement standard IEC 62220-1. An opaque tungsten edge-test device accomplishes the ideal step-like profile of the incident X rays. The edge spread function is measured over a large region across the edge transition that enables an accurate MTF measurement including the 'low-frequency drop'. The method has been applied to different state-of-the-art X-ray imaging detectors, a computed radiography, a CsI-based indirect and an Se-based direct flat-panel detector. The MTF measurement results will be presented. In contrast to the opaque edge device, the commonly used semi-transparent edge-test devices produce scatter radiation that deteriorates the incident X-ray profile, which leads to a systematic overestimation of the MTF.     

相位测量轮廓术中的距离像配准

对用相位测量轮廓术( PMP) 测量得到的不同视点距离像间的配准进行了研究。将逆向校准用于加速控制点和对应点的粗选,逆向校准所需的参数是在系统校准过程中直接计算得到的。以调制度作为度量对应点对可靠度的指标,实现不同对应点对对目标函数的区别性贡献。实验统计结果表明,该方法的配准误差约为系统测量误差的66%。     

Microscopic phase-shifting profilometry based on digital micromirror device technology

A microscopic three-dimensional (3-D) shape measurement system based on digital fringe projection has been developed and experimentally investigated. A Digital Micromirror Device along with its illumination optics is integrated into a stereomicroscope, which projects computer-generated fringe patterns with a sinusoidal intensity profile through the microscope objective onto the object surface being measured. The fringe patterns deformed by the object surface are recorded by a CCD camera. The microscopic 3-D shape of the object surface is measured and reconstructed by use of a phase-shifting technique. We discuss design considerations and error analysis of the system. Experimental results successfully demonstrate the capability of this technique for surface profile measurement of rough surfaces at the micrometer level.     

A fast pixel matching method based on phase feature extraction in online phase-measuring profilometry

A fast pixel matching method based on phase feature extraction in online phase-measuring profilometry is proposed, which is used to solve the problem where the object motion is along a straight line. The movement of the object results in the displacement of images in the captured deformed patterns, so pixel matching is carried out to modify the positions of images, which not only realizes the point-to-point correspondence of the object, but extracts the equivalent phase-shifting deformed patterns. So, the 3D surface shape of the object moving on the pipeline can be reconstructed successfully with an equivalent phase-shifting algorithm. The equiphase surface phase feature extracted from the phase distributions of the object obtained by Fourier transform profilometry is used to assist pixel matching in this paper. Normalization and further binarization of the phase feature extraction improve pixel matching’s accuracy and speed. The simulation and experiments verify the feasibility and validity of the proposed method.     

Effect of spatial coherence on knife-edge measurements of detector modulation transfer function

When an image of an edge object is used in the determination of the modulation transfer function of a detector array, the partial coherence of the illumination is often ignored. Although this approximation is valid in some cases, it may not be satisfactory, particularly for the small detector elements characteristic of present-day charge-coupled devices. Here we demonstrate the effect of partial coherence on edge-based modulation transfer function determination for various pixel sizes, degrees of coherence, and f-numbers of the test optics.     

Two-dimensional modulation transfer function: a new perspective

One-dimensional templates, such as the U.S. Air Force resolution target or the circular spoke target, are commonly used for the characterization of imaging systems via the modulation transfer function response. It is shown in this paper that one needs a new family of templates for a true characterization of imaging systems that acquire two-dimensional (2D) high-density images or handle 2D information, such as 2D bar code detection and identification. The contrast provided by the newly defined 2D templates is the "true" contrast of the acquired image that the electronic processors are challenged with.     

Atmospheric modulation transfer function in the infrared

In high-resolution ultranarrow field-of-view thermal imagers, image quality over relatively long path lengths is typically limited by atmospheric degradation, especially atmospheric blur. We report our results and analyses of infrared images from two sites, Fort A. P. Hill and Aberdeen Proving Ground. The images are influenced by the various atmospheric phenomena: scattering, absorption, and turbulence. A series of experiments with high-resolution equipment in both the 3-5- and 8-13-microm regions at the two locations indicate that, as in the visible, image quality is limited much more by atmosphere than by the instrumentation for ranges even of the order of only a few kilometers. For paths close to the ground, turbulence is more dominant, whereas for paths involving higher average elevation, aerosol modulation transfer function (MTF) is dominant. As wavelength increases, turbulence MTF also increases, thus permitting aerosol MTF to become more dominant. A critical role in aerosol MTF in the thermal infrared is attributed to absorption, which noticeably decreases atmospheric transmission much more than in the visible, thereby reducing high-spatial-frequency aerosol MTF. These measurements indicate that atmospheric MTF should be a basic component in imaging system design and analysis even in the infrared, especially as higher-resolution hardware becomes available.     

Measurement of the modulation transfer function of paper

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in modeling the halftone microstructure to better control the colors produced in a halftone image. Diffusion of light within the paper has a significant effect on the halftone color; this effect is known as optical dot gain or the Yule-Neilsen effect. Because of diffusion, a photon may exit the paper from a different region of the halftone microstructure than that into which it entered the paper. To account rigorously for this effect requires knowledge of the paper's point-spread function or, equivalently, the paper's modulation transfer function (MTF). A new technique for measuring the MTF of paper-the series-expansion bar-target technique-is introduced. The method uses a bar target, but the analysis more closely resembles that of the edge-gradient technique. In the series-expansion method, bar-target image data are expanded into a Fourier series, and the paper's MTF is given by the series-expansion coefficients. It differs from the typical bar-target analysis in that the typical method plots the amplitude of the fundamental frequency component for several targets of varying frequency, whereas the series-expansion method plots the amplitude of the fundamental and its harmonics for a single target. Two possible techniques for measuring the MTF with the bar-target series-expansion method are considered. In the first, the image of the bar target is projected onto the paper, and in the second, the bar target is placed directly on the paper, in close contact.     

Angular dependence of sampling modulation transfer function

Sampling modulation transfer function (MTF) as defined in Park et al. [Appl. Opt. 23, 2527-2582 (1984)] as an x and y sampling can be generalized for image data not along x and y directions. For a given sampling lattice (such as in a laser printer, a scene projector, or a focal-plane array), we construct a two-dimensional sampling MTF based on the distance between nearest samples in each direction. Because the intersample distance depends on direction, the sampling MTF will be best in the directions of highest spatial sampling and poorer in the directions of sparse sampling. We compare hexagonal and rectangular lattices in terms of their equivalent spatial frequency bandwidth. We filter images as a demonstration of the angular-dependent two-dimensional sampling MTF.     

Interferometric measurement of the modulation transfer function of a spectrometer by using spectral modulations

We present our results on measurement of the modulation transfer function (MTF) of a given spectrometer by using the sinusoidally modulated spectrum from a Michelson interferometer with white light. We studied the MTF by varying the periodicity of the spectral fringes produced by the interferometer. Experimental data are fitted to a theoretical model to derive the spectral slit width from the measured MTF of the spectrometer.     

Current and voltage transfer function filters using a single active device

In this study, current and voltage transfer function filters using single active component, namely, current backward transconductance amplifier (CBTA) are presented. The proposed structures are a single-input three outputs (SITO) current-transfer function filter, a single-input four-output (SIFO) voltage transfer function filter and three-input single-output (TISO) voltage transfer function filter. The proposed filters have low active and passive sensitivities and use canonical number of electronics components. The validity of the proposed circuits is demonstrated by PSPICE simulations and experimental results. Operation range of the CBTA and its parasitic effects are also discussed.     

Analysis of voltage effect on holographic gratings by modulation transfer function

The experimental data allow us to determine the imaging quality of holographic gratings with photosensitive film using organic material based on a polyvinyl alcohol matrix doped with potassium dichromate and nickel (II) chloride hexahydrate. The diffraction efficiency is estimated by different spatial frequencies, and the readout image quality is analyzed by the modulation transfer function. The experiment is carried out, with and without voltage application, at different spatial frequencies to obtain the image quality of photosensitive film.     

Simple method for minimax linear approximation of the transfer function of a measurement device

Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 3, pp. 19–21, March, 1992.     

Effects of fabrication errors in the diffractive optical element on the modulation transfer function of a hybrid lens

Diffractive optical elements (DOEs) are often used to improve the performance of optical systems. However, when a blazed DOE is machined, shape errors can be generated in the discontinuity region of the DOE due to the finite radius of the processing tool. We simulated the effects of this shape error on the optical path and modulation transfer function (MTF) in a hybrid lens for a compact camera module. The decrease rate of the MTF was larger in the low-spatial-frequency domain and when the light entered at a low incident angle.