Grating projection system for surface contour measurement

A grating projection system is a low-cost surface contour measurement technique that can be applied to a wide range of applications. There has been a resurgence of interest in the technique in recent years because of developments in computer hardware and image processing algorithms. We describe a method that projects a phase-shifted grating through a lens on an object surface. The deformed grating image on the object surface is captured by a CCD camera for subsequent analysis. Phase variation is achieved by a linear translation stage on which the grating is mounted. We compare the experimental results with the test results using a mechanical stylus method.