STATISTICAL SELF-CALIBRATING ALGORITHM FOR PHASE-SHIFT INTERFEROMETRYBASED ON A SMOOTHNESS ASSESSMENT OF THE INTENSITY OFFSET MAP

By processing a set of three phase-shifted interferograms one can dete rmine the actual phase steps between recordings by assuming that the c alculated map of the intensity offset has the smallest pixel to pixel variations when the supposed values of the phase steps match the actua l ones. Based on this principle a new statistical self-calibrating alg orithm for phase-shift interferometry is presented. Numerous tests wer e carried out to check the ability of the new algorithm to find the co rrect values of the actual phase steps. Algorithm limitations are disc ussed.