INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS OF DIFFRACTION PATTERN SAMPLING

Diffraction pattern sampling was introduced by G. G. Lendaris and G. L. Stanley in the late 1960s for the analysis of transparency material. Several industrial applications in which the diffraction pattern is formed directly from the object without an intervening transparency. Each application is described by a different diffraction model and utilizes a different optical configuration. A specific algorithm for each application relates the diffraction data to the desired measurement or go/no-go decision. In general, diffraction pattern sampling systems are most effective when the inverse relationship between space and frequency domains yields high effective magnification so that fewer samples are required in the diffraction domain than would be required to sample the image directly. This generally results in a faster, lower cost system realization than conventional video analysis.