Multi-polarization fringe projection imaging for high dynamic range objects

Traditional fringe-projection three-dimensional (3D) imaging techniques struggle to estimate the shape of high dynamic range (HDR) objects where detected fringes are of limited visibility. Moreover, saturated regions of specular reflections can completely block any fringe patterns, leading to lost depth information. We propose a multi-polarization fringe projection (MPFP) imaging technique that eliminates saturated points and enhances the fringe contrast by selecting the proper polarized channel measurements. The developed technique can be easily extended to include measurements captured under different exposure times to obtain more accurate shape rendering for very HDR objects. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America