Fringe skeletonizing using an improved derivative sign binary method

A modified derivative sign binary method is proposed to extract fringe skeletons from interferometric fringe patterns. A fringe direction map ranging from 0° to 360° is obtained with an unambiguous relationship between the grayscale and fringe tangent direction. Using this approach, the derivative sign binary map is detected without a fringe direction jump. The dark (light) fringe intensity minimum (maximum) can be extracted automatically to define fringe skeletons. In addition, two different anisotropic one-dimensional filters are described that can be used for further improving the fringe quality. Examples are provided for a holographic interferogram and a Moiré fringe pattern to illustrate applications and benefits of the approach.