Precision 3-D microscopy with intensity modulated fibre optic scanners

• A cheap and reliable 3-D microscope based on fibre optic has been developed.
• Intensity modulated fibre scanners, used without further processing, yield low quality images.
• A procedure to recover the geometry and reflectance of the object is described.

Optical 3-D imagers constitute a family of precision and useful instruments, easily available on the market in a wide variety of configurations and performances. However, besides their cost they usually provide an image of the object (i.e. a more or less faithful representation of the reality) instead of a truly object’s reconstruction. Depending on the detailed working principles of the equipment, this reconstruction may become a challenging task. Here a very simple yet reliable device is described; it is able to form images of opaque objects by illuminating them with an optical fibre and collecting the reflected light with another fibre. Its 3-D capability comes from the spatial filtering imposed by the fibres together with their movement (scanning) along the three directions: transversal (surface) and vertical. This unsophisticated approach allows one to model accurately the entire optical process and to perform the desired reconstruction, finding that information about the surface which is of interest: its profile and its reflectance, ultimately related to the type of material.