Discrete cosine transform based shift estimation for fringe pattern profilometry using generalized analysis model

This paper presents a new analysis algorithm to carry out profile measure- ment with low computational complexity and less noise-sensitivity. Firstly, a discrete cosine transform (DCT) based representation method is introduced to express the height distribution of the three-dimensional surface. Then, a novel shift estimation algorithm, called DCT based shift estimation (DCT-SE) is presented to reconstruct three-dimensional object surfaces by using the proposed expression and the generalized analysis model. The advantage of DCT-SE is that without loss of measurement precise it provides lower computational complexity to implement three-dimensional reconstruction from distorted fringe patterns and at the same time survives from random noises. Simulations and experiments show that the proposed DCT-SE is a fast, accurate and efficient reconstruction algorithm for digital projection based fringe pattern profilometry techniqu