Phase retrieval of optical fringe patterns from the ridge of a wavelet transform

A new method for phase retrieval of optical fringe patterns is presented. This method is based on a wavelet transform and is capable of extracting the full 2D phase distribution from a single fringe pattern. An important conclusion that the phase of the optical fringe pattern is equal to the phase of its wavelet transform on the ridge of the wavelet transform is theoretically clarified. The method is compared with the Fourier transform and the integration methods. A numerical simulation and an experimental example of phase retrieval are shown.