Absolute phase retrieval for defocused fringe projection three-dimensional measurement

Defocused fringe projection three-dimensional technique based on pulse-width modulation (PWM) can generate high-quality sinusoidal fringe patterns. It only uses slightly defocused binary structured patterns which can eliminate the gamma problem (i.e. nonlinear response), and the phase error can be significantly reduced. However, when the projector is defocused, it is difficult to retrieve the absolute phase from the wrapped phase. A recently proposed phase coding method is efficient for absolute phase retrieval, but the gamma problem leads this method not so reliable. In this paper, we use the PWM technique to generate fringe patterns for the phase coding method. The gamma problem of the projector can be eliminated, and correct absolute phase can be retrieved. The proposed method only uses two grayscale values (0's and 255's), which can be used for real-time 3D shape measurement. Both simulation and experiment demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.