Approach to automatic analysis of Young's fringes in speckle photography

A new flexible automatic method for analysis of Young's fringes that allows software, electronic hardware, and optoelectronic realizations is proposed. A displacement vector is sought in the two-dimensional spatial frequency domain, the separate slices of which are obtained through multiple use of the one-dimensional Fourier transform of the Radon-transformed fringe image. An estimate of fringe angle and spacing is found from a projection with the principal Fourier spectrum peak. Afterward its position is repeatedly refined until the desired accuracy is reached. Although the method is relevant mainly to speckle photography, our approach is also applicable to fringe patterns that are generated by a computer. The problem of fringe visibility is widely discussed, and a new estimate is proposed.