For industrial three-dimensional (3D)-measuring applications as well as for other applications such as driver assistance systems in vehicles, a high-quality reproduction in a depth map calculation is of paramount importance. Yet to date, light field cameras still exhibit severe problems in imaging homogeneous surfaces such as smooth metallic surfaces, plastics, or semiconductor materials. On those, the necessary contrast for determining the topography is not present or too weak. Here, we present an innovative approach to improve the performance of light field cameras (also called plenoptic cameras) for various applications in 3D measurement technology. More specifically, we show that this disadvantage can be avoided using structured lighting pattern and analyze various lighting patterns (with respect to geometry, size, regularity, etc.) used to improve the performance of the algorithm in greater detail. In addition, different ways of projecting the pattern have been examined with regard to their advantages and disadvantages. We perform a systematic investigation of the impact of structured light illumination with regard to different object materials, object geometries, and illumination patterns as well as illumination sources. These examinations further comprise the analysis of environmental influences and magnitude of measurement deviations in a light field camera measuring set-up. Summing up, we investigated experimentally the influence of structured illumination on the performance of 3D depth information without the need of additional phase information.
The quality and stability of materials or products containing natural fibres (textiles, fleece, fibre-reinforced materials) is mainly determined by the length of the employed natural fibres. To this day, the only possibility for determining the length distribution of natural fibres in a fibre bundle consisting of irregularly arranged fibres is to either manually sort and classify the single fibres or use a measuring instrument called Almeter. The device has not been produced for 20 years and is getting outdated with respect to hardware-interface and operating system compatibility. However, more than 500 of these devices are still in use all over the world. In this paper we present a novel method and device for optically determining the length distribution of fibres and fibre bundles with lengths greater than 5 cm. A fibre or fibre bundle consisting of fibres with varying lengths is put on a needle bed where a gripper pulls the fibres at their one end. During this draw-out process a laser line is projected onto the fibres and the reflected light is detected by a line sensor taking grey-scale pictures with a frequency of (currently) 8 kHz, but this can be easily increased by a factor of 3 or 4 with current line sensor technology. The image stack can be analysed, and the lengths of the fibres may be determined. To date, owing to the dimensions of the pre-existing apparatus that has been modified, the maximum length of fibres to be measured is 350 mm. The resolution of the optical device has been proven to be 20 microns. In addition to that, the distribution of the width of single fibres can be determined, as well. The measuring method may be easily extended to other measurement parameters, such as fibre colour. An additional advantageous feature of the novel measuring method is the possibility to adjust the resolving powers in two perpendicular directions to given desired values independently.
In this investigation the influence of the local environment on the laser damage threshold of anti-reflective coatings is
reported. For this purpose, HfO2 / SiO2 anti-reflective coatings were deposited on fused silica substrates using an ionbeam
sputter system. Laser damage threshold measurements were performed using two test procedures, S-on-1 and Ron-
1, at 355 nm for temperatures ranging from room temperature up to 250 °C and in different atmospheres. The two
test procedures had comparable LIDT results with a possible pre-conditioning effect evidenced by a broadening of the
transition range of the R-on-1 measured samples. It was found that samples measured in normal atmospheric air showed
superior laser resistance compared to samples measured under nitrogen purge or in dry air. Samples measured in normal
atmospheric air also showed a temperature dependence with an improved laser resistance at 25 °C. No temperature
dependence was observed for samples measured under nitrogen purge or in dry air. In this paper, literature showing
similar effects is reviewed and the influence of a water epilayer on the coating as a possible cause for the observed
results is discussed.
Optical coatings used in ultraviolet applications are often exposed to harsh environments operating at elevated temperatures. In order to study the impact of the ageing effects optical coatings experience at various operating temperatures, an ultraviolet laser-induced degradation test system has been developed. It allows for flexible use in both a long-term stability test bench as well as in an LIDT measurement system. This work contains the preliminary results of optical degradation tests at 355 nm performed on anti-reflective coatings. As a subsequent step, the LIDT of the samples were measured using a Q-Switched Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064nm.
This work presents detailed theoretical analysis of the effect of finite dimensions of an amplitude diffraction grating to the edge response function of the Talbot imaging. A diffraction of a plane wave is studied as well as a diffraction of a spherical one. The derived formulas can be used to refine the description of field propagation behind the amplitude diffraction grating; therefore, an analysis and an improvement of current applications, where the Talbot effect is used, can be realised.
Manufacturing processes from the private and academic sectors were used to deposit anti-reflective and high-reflective coatings composed of Ta2O5 - SiO2 multilayers. Used deposition techniques included three Ion Assisted Deposition (IAD) systems and an Ion Beam Sputtering (IBS) system. Coatings were performed on fused silica (Corning 7980) substrates polished by two different suppliers. LIDT Measurements were performed using a Q-Switched Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064nm. The paper presents a comparison of the coatings in terms of laser damage threshold values, optical properties and surface quality.
In this paper, we describe a simple and cost-effective method and measuring device for automatic detection of welding. The sensor is to be used in automatic darkening filters (ADF) of welding helmets protecting the operator from intensive hazardous UV radiation. For reasons discussed in detail below, conventional sensor principles used in ADF are being out-dated. Here, we critically revise some alternatives and propose an approach comprising an optical distance sensor. Its underlying principle is triangulation with two pin-hole cameras. The absence of optical components such as lenses results in very low cost. At first, feasibility is tested with optical simulations. Additionally, we present measurement results that prove the practicability of our proposal.
In an earlier paper we have described a concept for high speed 3D inspection using fringe projection techniques. We use
a special CMOS camera with 300 x 300 px which can calculate the phase on board. The focus of the first step of
development had been a fringe projector, which was able to modulate the projected fringes with up to 250 kHz.
In the second step the image acquisition part of the system was developed. In case of 3D measurement with a matrix
camera, the camera resp. the measuring object has to be moved stepwise in the lateral direction to cover multiple
acquisition areas of the measurement object. Between each image the lateral movement has to correspond to the field of
view of the camera. At the intended very high image acquisition rates the high acceleration of the system between each
image will lead to inacceptable mechanical forces.
In order to obtain a continuous scanning procedure and at the same time to use the performance of a matrix camera, a
special lens system was developed. A measurement field 120 mm long and 3 mm wide is imaged onto the camera. The
width of the measuring field is imaged onto the 300 rows of the camera, giving a lateral resolution of 10 μm. In the longitudinal direction the 120 mm object length is divided into 12’000 lines to reach the same resolution of 10 μm. Due
to technical reasons that will be described later only 240 of the 300 pixel rows on the chip were used. Consequently, with each camera shot 240 separated lines are imaged onto the chip. Between each of these 240 lines there is a large empty space, which is not imaged by the camera. In principle, the camera is operating as 240 single line cameras. Therefore, if the camera is shifted in an inclined direction to the camera orientation over the object, the empty spaces can be recorded as well. In an optimum alignment, the complete measuring object can be scanned in a continuous movement, covering the total length of 120 mm. In this paper we will describe this image acquisition system and give first measuring results.
Fringe projection techniques have been widely used for inspection of free form surfaces for quality inspection or reverse
engineering purposes. For inline 3D-inspection systems maximum measuring speed is of vital interest. Typically, image
acquisition and processing rates of up to 10'000 frames/s are state of the art.
In order to exceed this value, we propose a fringe projection concept which uses a high speed CMOS camera with in
pixel phase calculation. The camera can record up to 1 million frames/s. An analogue calculation is realized in every
pixel to extract the phase of the temporarily modulated light.
In order to determine a phase, the illumination light must be modulated with a quarter of the frame rate of the image
acquisition device, in our case with up to 250 kHz. In fringe projection techniques, the projected fringes must be shifted
with respect to the inspected surface. Mechanical phase shifting of the fringes becomes the crucial problem in ultra high
speed fringe projection. We have investigated a new way to generate 250 kHz phase shifted fringes. In this paper, we
present the new fringe projection technique and discuss the results of our high speed 3D measuring device.
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