Method and a system for real-time high-speed three dimensional surface imaging

1. A method for high-speed three-dimensional surface imaging of an object using band-limited illumination, comprising using one binary digital micromirror device pattern and a 4f imaging system to produce a greyscale sinusoidal pattern from an input laser beam, the grayscale sinusoidal pattern being processed by an adaptive error diffusion algorithm into a corresponding binary pattern able to be displayed on the digital micromirror device at the digital micromirror device's refreshing rate, to an image plane of a 4f imaging system, using an optical amplitude/intensity filter pinhole positioned at the 4f imaging system's Fourier plane; projecting each binary pattern displayed on the digital micromirror device onto the object; acquiring a resulting sinusoidal pattern as deformed by a geometry of the three-dimensional surface of the object using a camera and high-speed image data streaming from the camera to a graphic processing unit for parallel computation of image classification and phase extraction to reconstruct the three-dimensional surface of the object from the sinusoidal pattern deformed by the geometry of the three-dimensional surface of the object acquired by the camera; displaying the three-dimensional surface of the object as thus reconstructed.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said projecting each binary pattern displayed on the digital micromirror device onto the object comprises using a projector lens to project an image formed at the image plane of the 4f imaging system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the camera is a high speed camera in a CoaXPress-interface with a computer.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the camera is a high speed camera and the camera is interfaced with the graphic processing unit with a CXP cable.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising using a continuous-wave laser with an output power of at least 200 mW and a wavelength selected in a range between 420 and 700 nm as a source of the input laser beam.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the digital micromirror device has a resolution of more than 1 Mega pixels and a full frame refreshing rate of at least 5 kHz.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the digital micromirror device has a resolution of more than 1 Mega pixels and a full frame refreshing rate of at least 5 kHz, the method comprising expanding the input laser beam in relation to an active area of the digital micromirror device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the digital micromirror device has a resolution of more than 1 Mega pixels and a full frame refreshing rate of at least 5 kHz, the method comprising expanding the input laser beam in relation to an active area of the digital micromirror device using a beam expander having magnification times of more than 8, a maximum input beam diameter of more than 1.2 mm, and a wavelength range selected in a range between 420 and 700 nm.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the camera is a high speed camera of a frame rate of at least 5 k frames/second, and a sensor with more than 250 k pixels.

10. The method of claim 1 , using a CoaXPress interface having a data transfer speed of at least 25 Gbps to interface the camera with the graphic processing unit, the camera being a high-speed camera and the graphic processing unit having a memory speed of a least 8 Gbps, a memory bandwidth of a least 192 GB/sec, and NVIDIA CUDA® Cores of a least 1152.

11. A system high-speed 3D surface imaging of an object using band-limited illumination, comprising:

a laser source;

a digital micromirror device;

a 4f imaging system and an optical amplitude/intensity filter pinhole positioned at a Fourier plane of the 4f imaging system;

a projector;

a graphic processing unit; and

a display unit;

wherein an input laser beam from said laser source is used to produce a greyscale sinusoidal pattern, and the grayscale sinusoidal pattern is processed using the graphic processing unit in combination with an adaptive error diffusion algorithm into a corresponding binary pattern able to be displayed on the digital micromirror device;

wherein the 4f imaging system and the optical amplitude/intensity filter pinhole filter high-spatial frequency noise; said projector projecting the binary pattern displayed on the digital micromirror device onto the object; said camera acquiring a resulting sinusoidal pattern as deformed by a geometry of the 3D surface of the object and data streaming to the graphic processing unit for parallel computation of image classification and phase extraction to reconstruct the 3D surface of the object from the sinusoidal pattern as deformed by the geometry of the 3D surface of the object acquired by the camera; said display unit displaying the 3D surface of the object as thus reconstructed.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein said projector projects an image formed at the image plane of the 4f imaging system.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein said laser source is a continuous-wave laser with an output power of at least 200 mW and a wavelength selected in a range between 420 and 700 nm.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the digital micromirror device has a resolution of more than 1 Mega pixels and a full frame refreshing rate of at least 5 kHz.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the camera is a high speed camera of a frame rate of at least 5 k frames/second, and a sensor with more than 250 k pixels.

16. The system of claim 11 , comprising a beam expander selected with a magnification time of more than 8, a maximum input beam diameter of more than 1.2 mm, and a wavelength range selected in a range between 420 and 700 nm, said beam expander expanding the input laser beam in relation to an active area of the digital micromirror device.

17. The system of claim 11 , comprising a CoaXPress interface having a data transfer speed of at least 25 Gbps interfacing the camera with the graphic processing unit, said graphic processing unit having a memory speed of a least 8 Gbps, a memory bandwidth of a least 192 GB/sec, and NVIDIA CODA® Cores.