Surface height retrieval based on fringe shifting of color-encoded structured light pattern

A new method of fringe shifting for color structured pattern projection is presented for three-dimensional (M) surface height measurement. Temporal encoding of color stripes is combined with locally spatial shifting of multiple fringes to realize image acquisition with a small number of pattern projections. Object topography is retrieved with high resolution by decoding the code word of each fringe with the help of the redundant information provided by the shifting patterns and the encoding patterns in their temporal and spatial neighborhoods. An application to evaluate the shape of a buckled tube demonstrates the effectiveness of the method. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.