Snap-shot profilometry with the empirical mode decomposition and a 3-layer color sensor

Remote sensing finds more and more applications, from industrial control, to face recognition, not forgetting terrain surveying. This trend is well exemplified by fringe projection techniques, which enjoyed a considerable development in the recent years. In addition of high requirement in terms of measurement accuracy and spatial resolution, the end-users of full-field techniques show a growing interest for dynamic regimes. We report here what we believe to be the use for the first time of a CMOS 3-layer color sensor (Foveon X3) as the key element of a RGB fringe projection system, together with the processing specifically elaborated for this sensor. The 3-layer architecture allows the simultaneous recording of three phase-shifted fringe patterns and features the precious asset of an unambiguous relationship between the physical sensor pixel and the picture pixel and this for each color layer, on the contrary of common color sensor arrays (Bayer mosaic and tri-CCD). Due to the overlapping of the spectral responses of the layers, color transformation is mandatory to achieve the separation of the three phase-shifted RGB projected fringe patterns. In addition, we propose the use of the Empirical Mode Decomposition to equalize the non-uniform responses of the three layers. Although the conversion of the phase into a height is of primary importance in an actual measurement, it is not treated here, the literature being profuse on the central projection model.