Phase-unwrapping approach based on dual-frequency analog structured light

Among the structured light 3-D measurement approaches, the multi-period analog encoded structured light (AESL) has advantages such as high resolution and high sampling rate owing to its point-to-point calculation method. However, phase unwrapping is always a problem when employing the multi-period AESL. Therefore, we propose a novel phase unwrapping approach based on dual-frequency AESL. We demonstrate the principle of the proposed phase unwrapping approach through theoretical analysis and the applicable condition for the proposed approach is determined through error analysis. We perform experiments using the proposed and classical heterodyne approaches and compare the results. The experimental results for the standard plane show that the average value of the root mean square error with the heterodyne approach is 1.08 mm, and that with the proposed approach is 0.62 mm, which is a reduction by 43%. Further, the experimental results for the complicated surfaces show that the reconstructed object obtained using the proposed approach is fine and smooth, and the detailed features are clearly displayed. The experiments verify both the accuracy and the suitability of the proposed approach.