The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 22, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 10, 1999
J Craig Dwyer, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
C L Arnold, Jr, Saline, MI (US);
Kenneth W Parker, Nazareth, PA (US);
Veridian ERIM International, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Abstract
A method of phase unwrapping is described along with an efficient UNIX/C implementation. From selected reference or starting points in a phase-wrapped image, the phase gradients with respect to the nearest neighbors of the starting pixels whose correlation is above the first correlation threshold are examined and a path representing the smallest phase difference is chosen as the first step in the creation of a path. The process is continued and, with each step, a maximum of three new neighbors is added to a list of possible path extensions. The list is sorted by step size, and the smallest step size is selected as the next path extension. This continues until all pixels that can be reached by paths containing only pixels with correlation above the first correlation threshold are on a path. In the same way, the paths are then extended to include all pixels with correlation above the next lower correlation threshold. The process is finished when the paths include all pixels reachable by a path that includes only pixels with correlation above the lowest correlation threshold.