Extraction of difference of two images using periodic carrier modulation

The optical method of extraction of difference between transparencies using periodic carrier modulation was first proposed and successfully demonstrated by Pennington. His method was based on the modulation of each of the image transparencies by the same grating with the difference that one modulating carrier was shifted by half-period with respect to the other. In order to ensure extraction of difference signal from unwanted sum signal, the modulating carrier frequency must be too low. This poses a serious problem because shifting a high frequency grating exactly by a half-period is not an easy task. In order to surmount this difficulty Belvaux and Lowenthal proposed that instead of using a grating, the images transparencies can be modulated by fringes obtained in a Wollaston prism. It is well-known that these fringes can be shifted by a half-period by rotating an analyzer at the output side by 90°. The optical methods of subtraction of images suffer from the disadvantage that the photographic record has to be developed and fixed by wet processes. The processed record is then Fourier transformed and suitably filtered to extract the difference signal. In the present paper we have carried out extraction of difference of two images using the principle of periodic carrier modulation by carrying out spatial frequency filtering of the total irradiance distribution numerically. Some of the results of subtraction are presented.