The 2D Continuous Wavelet Transform: Applications in Frin- ge Pattern Processing for Optical Measurement Techniques

Abstract

Optical metrology and interferometry are widely known disciplines that study and develop techniques to measure physical quantities such as dimensions, force, temperature, stress, etc. A key part of these disciplines is the processing of interferograms, also called fringe patterns. Owing that this kind of images contains the information of interest in a codified form, processing them is of main relevance and has been a widely studied topic for many years. Several mathematical tools have been used to analyze fringe patterns, from the classic Fourier analysis to regularization methods. Some methods based on wavelet theory have been proposed for this purpose in the last years and have evidenced virtues to consider them as a good alternative for fringe pattern analysis. In this chapter, we resume the theoretical basis of fringe pattern image formation and processing, and some of the most relevant applications of the 2D continuous wavelet transform (CWT) in fringe pattern analysis.