Interferogram Analysis

In preparing this book, the aim has been to draw together a field of work which has developed over the last 10 years into a subject in its own right. Techniques for analysis of fringe patterns have advanced from often laborious manual reduction by a specialist technician to the point where fully automatic computer analysis is possible, using commercial software packages to assist the non-specialist in any particular measurement application. This book describes the currently applicable techniques for automatic fringe pattern reduction. These are described together with many of the application areas (principally in the applied optics field) thus providing, in a tutorial format, the basis of further study by postgraduate students or applications engineers needing a range of potential solutions to a measurement or data reduction problem. The book will be of particular value to academic postgraduates, government and industrial researchers in the fields of mechanical engineering, metrology and non-destructive testing, and those interested in the applications of interferometry in medicine, civil engineering, offshore engineering, aeronautical engineering and electrical engineering. In addition, the book should be a valuable reference work for physicists, computer scientists and mathematicians with interests in interferometry. It consists of a sequence of chapters containing reviews of the main techniques for digital interferogram analysis by leading experts from around the world. These, together with the introductory chapters on computer image processing and optical measurement techniques, make the book a self-contained guide to the subject.