Robust phase-unwrapping method for phase images with high noise content

We present a robust method of phase unwrapping that was designed for use on noisy phase images with arbitrary fringe patterns. The method proceeds by first identifying distinct regions between fringe boundaries in an image and then phase shifting the regions with respect to one another by multiples of 2π to unwrap the phase. Image pixels are segmented between interfringe and fringe boundary areas by fitting a plane model using least squares to overlapping domains centered on all pixels. The method is tolerant of fringe gradient degradation caused by noise, filtering artifacts, and finite instrumentation bandwidth.