Background and amplitude encoded fringe patterns for 3D surface-shape measurement

•Shape measurement uses background-amplitude encoded high-frequency fringe patterns.•Background-amplitude extraction and geometry constraints determine phase period order.•Only four projected patterns and captured images needed with single camera-projector.

This paper presents a new fringe projection method for surface-shape measurement that uses background and amplitude encoded high-frequency fringe patterns. The background and amplitude, combined as a codeword, identify the wrapped phase fringe order to partially unwrap the phase to a low frequency. The low-frequency wrapped phase map is then directly used to reconstruct the surface based on geometry constraints without requiring additional images as in other temporal phase-unwrapping methods. Measurements performed on a double-hemisphere, mask, and manikin head, using projected fringe patterns with 48 periods, demonstrated the ability of the method to perform 3D shape measurement with only four projected patterns and captured images, using a single camera and projector.