Displacement Measurement from Double-exposure Laser Photographs

Abstract

Surface displacement can be measured by recording a double-exposure photograph of the laser-illuminated object, followed by optical processing of the recorded speckle-pattern image. The analysis can either be on a point-by-point basis, or by a spatial filtering technique which resolves the motion in any desired direction orthogonal to the line of sight. The limits within which the technique may be used to measure lateral translations and rotations of the surface are examined theoretically and experimentally, and the effect of lens aberrations and surface scattering properties are discussed. Surface tilt may also be measured by recording a defocused double exposure image and analysing its optical transform. The photographic techniques described can be extended to measuring surface vibration, by recording a single ‘time-averaged’ exposure and examining the modified optical transform fringe pattern.