Electronic speckle photography: analysis of an algorithm giving the displacement with subpixel accuracy

Replacing photographic recording by electronic processing has some obvious advantages. An algorithm used for electronic speckle pattern photography is presented, and the reliability and accuracy is analyzed by using computer-generated speckle patterns. The algorithm is based on a two-dimensional discrete cross correlation between subimages from different images. Subpixel accuracy is obtained by a Fourier series expansion of the discrete correlation surface. The accuracy of the algorithm was found to vary in proportion to sigma/n(1 - delta)(2), where sigma is the speckle size, n is the subimage size, and delta is the amount of decorrelation, with negligible systematic errors. For typical values the uncertainty in the displacement is approximately 0.05 pixels. The uncertainty is found to increase with increased displacement gradients.