Improved speckle projection profilometry for out-of-plane shape measurement.

An improved speckle projection profilometry that combines the projection of computer generated random speckle patterns using an ordinary LCD projector and the two-dimensional digital image correlation technique for in-plane displacements measurement is proposed for accurate out-of-plane shape and displacement measurements. The improved technique employs a simple yet effective calibration technique to determine the linear relationship between the out-of-plane height and the measured in-plane displacements. In addition, the iterative spatial domain cross-correlation algorithm, i.e., the improved Newton-Raphson algorithm using the zero-normalized sum of squared differences correlation criterion and the second-order shape function was employed in image correlation analysis for in-plane displacement determination of the projected speckle patterns, which provides more reliable and accurate matching with a higher correlation coefficient. Experimental results of both a regular cylinder and a human hand demonstrate that the proposed technique is easy to implement and can be applied to a practical out-of-plane shape and displacement measurement with high accuracy. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America