Three-dimensional reconstruction of specular reflecting technical surfaces using structured light microscopy

In computer assisted quality control the three-dimensional reconstruction of technical surfaces is playing an ever more important role. Due to the demand on high measurement accuracy and data acquisition rates, structured light optical microscopy has become a valuable solution for the three-dimensional measurement of technical surfaces with high vertical and lateral resolution. However, the three-dimensional reconstruction of specular reflecting technical surfaces with very low surface-roughness and local slopes still remains a challenge to optical measurement principles. Furthermore the high data acquisition rates of current optical measurement systems depend on highly complex and expensive scanning-techniques making them impractical for inline quality control. In this paper we present a novel measurement principle based on a multi-pinhole structured light solution without moving parts which enables the threedimensional reconstruction of specular and diffuse reflecting technical surfaces. This measurement principle is based on multiple and parallel processed point-measurements. These point measurements are realized by spatially locating and analyzing the resulting Point Spread Function (PSF) in parallel for each point measurement. Analysis of the PSF is realized by pattern recognition and model-fitting algorithms accelerated by current Graphics-Processing-Unit (GPU) hardware to reach suitable measurement rates. Using the example of optical surfaces with very low surface-roughness we demonstrate the three-dimensional reconstruction of these surfaces by applying our measurement principle. Thereby we show that the resulting high measurement accuracy enables cost-efficient three-dimensional surface reconstruction suitable for inline quality control.