Fringe analysis

Fringe analysis is the process of extracting quantitative measurement data from fringe - or line - patterns. It usually consists of phase detection an d phase unwrapping. Phase detection is the calculation of the fringes phase from the recorded intensity patterns, and this issue represents the major part of the material in this review. Different techniques for this phase ca lculation are presented, with special emphasis on the characteristic polyno mial method, allows us permits to easily design customized algorithms copin g with many error sources. For reference, a table presenting the properties of almost all algorithms which have been in recent years is provided in th e Appendix. A generic method allowing us to quantitatively evaluate the pha se errors and the effect of noise is presented here for the first time. Fin ally, some elements regarding the complex problem of phase unwrapping are g iven.