Spatial carrier fringe pattern demodulation by use of a two-dimensional continuous wavelet transform

A novel technique that uses a fan two-dimensional (2D) continuous wavelet transform (CWT) to phase demodulate fringe patterns is proposed. The fan 2D CWT algorithm is tested by using computer generated and real fringe patterns. The result of this investigation reveals that the 2D CWT technique is capable of successfully demodulating fringe patterns. The proposed algorithm demodulates fringe patterns without the requirement of removing their background illumination prior to the demodulation process. Also, the algorithm is exceptionally robust against speckle noise. The performance of the 2D CWT technique in fringe pattern demodulation is compared with that of the 1D CWT algorithms. This comparison indicates that the 2D CWT outperforms its 1D counterpart for this application. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.