Modified 3D coordinate measurement based on fringe projection

The present article proposes a new method using the fringe projection principle to measure three-dimensional (3D) coordinates. The proposed method adopts a mini-projector to project fringe patterns. Through moving the mini-projector upward along the 3D direction, a camera records the deformed fringe patterns from the display screen. Phase-shifting algorithm is applied to obtain phase information on the fringe pattern and combined with the system model to calculate measured 3D coordinates. This method does not require the standard scale in each of the three coordinate directions and more flexibly measures the 3D coordinates. It has strong anti-noise ability, and regardless of too much noise, it can still measure the 3D coordinates. The feasibility of the proposed method has been verified by a series of simulations and preliminary experiments. (C) 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.