Fourier phase-demodulation applied to strip-light 360-degrees profilometry of 3D solids; theoretical principles

360-degrees digitalization of three-dimensional (3D) solids using a projected light-strip is a well established technique. These profilometers project a light-strip over the solid under analysis while the solid is rotated a full revolution. Then a computer program typically extracts the centroid of this light-strip, and by triangulation one obtains the shape of the solid. Here instead of using intensity-based strip centroid estimation, we propose to use Fourier phase-demodulation. This 360-degrees profilometer first constructs a carrier-frequency fringe-pattern by closely adding individual light-strip images. Secondly this high-density fringe-pattern is phase-demodulated using the standard Fourier technique.