Reduction of systematic errors in structured light metrology at discontinuities in surface reflectivity

In measuring 3D shape with structured light techniques, systematic errors arise in the neighbourhood of discontinuities in reflectivity or geometry. A mechanism for this phenomenon is proposed, based on the finite size of the imaging system’s point spread function. A theoretical analysis for the phase errors in a phase-shifting projected fringe system is given, from which a correction algorithm to minimise the systematic errors is presented. In this algorithm, a closed form expression for the errors based on the intensity values and the phase values in a neighbourhood excluding the affected region is used to remove the estimated error from the measured phase values within the affected region. Experiments on samples with both linear and circular discontinuities in reflectivity demonstrated respective reductions in systematic errors by factors of 2.5× and 3×.