Iterative two-step temporal phase-unwrapping applied to high sensitivity three-dimensional profilometry

•We validate Servin׳s method by experiments instead of computer simulation.•The proposed method can increase the accuracy with larger sensitivity coefficient G.•We derive the initial phase conditions of this algorithm.•The proposed method can overcome the disadvantages that Servin׳s method encounters.

Although temporal phase unwrapping method can be applied to solve some problems to measure an object with steep shapes, isolated parts or fringe undersampling in three-dimensional (3D) shape measurement, it needs to acquire and process a sequence of fringe pattern images which would take much time. Servin et al. proposed a 2-step temporal phase unwrapping algorithm, which only needs the 2 extreme phase-maps to achieve exactly the same results as standard temporal unwrapping method. But this method is only validated by computer simulation, shortage of experimental demonstration, its sensitivity coefficient G is limited, and it cannot be used when the G value is larger. We proposed an iterative two-step temporal phase-unwrapping algorithm which is an extension of Servin׳s method. First, add a fringe pattern with an intermediate sensitivity, project the fringe patterns of different sensitivity onto the tested object’s surface, and collect deformed fringe patterns with a CCD camera. Then we obtain the unwrapped phase with larger sensitivity coefficient G by cascading the sensitivity coefficients. And we derive the initial phase conditions of the 2-step temporal phase unwrapping algorithm. Finally, the experimental evaluation is conducted to prove the validity of the proposed method. The results are analyzed and compared with Servin׳s method. The experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve higher sensitivity and more accurate measurement, and it can overcome the main disadvantages encountered by Servin׳s method.