Aperiodic sinusoidal fringes in comparison to phase-shifted sinusoidal fringes for high-speed three-dimensional shape measurement

In order to optically reconstruct the three-dimensional (3-D) surface shape of moving objects or deformation processes, aside from high-speed cameras, high-speed projectors and/or short projection sequences are necessary. One approach is to project a series of aperiodic sinusoidal fringes, e.g., by using an array projector that can achieve frame rates of several 10 kHz. So far, we have demonstrated the fundamental functionality of a 3-D sensor based on this projection technique. Now the measurement principle itself is to be compared with phase-shifting fringe projection as probably the most widely used technique. Theoretical considerations as well as experimental investigations are conducted to derive criteria for the design of optimal sequences of aperiodic sinusoidal fringes and to compare the number of patterns of both approaches necessary for comparable accuracies.