The retrieval of reliable 3D surface information has become one of the most attractive research areas within optical metrology. 3D shape measurement techniques are used in a wide range of application fields, such as industrial engineering, design, manufacturing and inspection, virtual and augmented reality applications, cultural heritage, computer vision, and biomedical engineering. Fringe projection profilometry (FPP) is a very popular noncontact 3D surface measurement technique where the information about the physical quantity to be measured is stored in the phase of a fringe pattern. The outstanding features of FPP rely on its ability to provide automatic, accurate, high-resolution, full-field 3D surface information. The different methods for phase estimation can be broadly classified into two categories: Phase-shifting methods, which require multiple fringe patterns, and spatial methods, which are based on a single fringe pattern. In this regard, single-shot methods are particularly suitable for real-time measurements, which play an important role in manufacturing inspection and dynamic 3D shape measurements. All these approaches have different advantages and drawbacks with respect to typical optical error sources. Even if several approaches have been proposed in the last years, 3D surface analysis in real scenarios is still affected by many problems, due to a variety of global illumination effects (high reflectivity, inter-reflections, surface scattering, etc.). These effects may introduce systematic and often significant errors in recovered shapes. For these reasons, FPP is still an active research field for the scientific community. The Special Issue of the journal Applied Sciences “Fringe Projection Profilometry for Fast and Accurate 3D Surface Analysis” aims to cover recent advances in the development and use of FPP techniques for shape measurement processes in all the application fields. Authors are invited to contribute with both reviews and original research papers on the matter. Reviews papers should provide an up-to-date overview of the current state-of-the-art in a specific application and include main findings from several research groups.
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