Characterization of specular surfaces

Abstract

The present subject matter at-least provides a system for measurement of topography of specular surfaces. The system comprises a set of indexed light-sources and a controller configured to drive the set of light-sources for irradiating a specular-surface by sequentially illuminating a plurality of sub-sets of the light-sources in accordance with a pre-defined encoding criteria. Further, at least one camera is provided to capture reflected light-radiation from the specular-surface and thereby generate a plurality of images in accordance with the sequential-illumination, such that each of the generated-image corresponds to a particular sub-set of illuminated light sources. Further, a processing system is configured to process each generated image in accordance with an image-processing criteria specific to the encoding-criteria to determine one or more index of light-sources and thereby identify the light-sources within the images; and determine topography of the specular-surface at-least based on calculation of spatial-coordinates and the determined identity of each light-source.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A system for measurement of topography of specular surfaces, the system comprising:
 a set of indexed light-sources;   a controller configured to drive the set of light-sources to irradiate a specular-surface by sequentially illuminating a plurality of sub-sets of light-sources of the set of light sources in accordance with a pre-defined encoding criteria;   at-least one camera configured to capture reflected light-radiation from the specular-surface and thereby generate a plurality of images in accordance with the sequential-illumination, wherein each of the generated-images corresponds to a particular sub-set of illuminated light sources; and   a processing system configured to perform operations comprising:
 process each generated image in accordance with an image-processing criteria specific to the encoding-criteria to determine one or more index of light-sources and thereby identify the light-sources within the images; and 
 determine topography of the specular-surface at-least based on calculation of spatial-coordinates and the determined identity of each light-source.