A comparison of phase shifting and fourier methods in the analysis of discontinuous fringe patterns

Phase Shifting Interferometry is a highly accurate data acquisition technique that efficiently utilizes several frames of information for each measurement. In this work, the advantages of phase shifting have been applied to a conventional moiré interferometer, yielding a system capable of recording phase shifted fringe patterns for both in-plane displacement components. Using this method, the phase of a wavefront of interest can be determined at each detector location, so that the resolution of the phase measurements is limited primarily by the detector discrimination and geometry. Unlike traditional Fourier fringe analysis, the noise rejection of phase shift processing algorithms does not degrade image fidelity in the presence of edges and discontinuities. A general discussion of both the phase shifting technique and the Fourier fringe analysis method is included to provide insight into the problems of processing discontinuous fringe patterns.