Optical interferometry plays an important role in the topographical surface measurement and characterization in precision/ultra-precision manufacturing. An appropriate surface reconstruction algorithm is essential in obtaining accurate topography information from the digitized interferograms. However, the performance of a surface reconstruction algorithm in interferometric measurements is influenced by environmental disturbances and system noise. This paper presents a comparative analysis of three algorithms commonly used for coherence envelope detection in vertical scanning interferometry, including the centroid method, fast Fourier transform (FFT), and Hilbert transform (HT). Numerical analysis and experimental studies were carried out to evaluate the performance of different envelope detection algorithms in terms of measurement accuracy, speed, and noise resistance. Step height standards were measured using a developed interferometer and the step profiles were reconstructed by different algorithms. The results show that the centroid method has a higher measurement speed than the FFT and HT methods, but it can only provide acceptable measurement accuracy at a low noise level. The FFT and HT methods outperform the centroid method in terms of noise immunity and measurement accuracy. Even if the FFT and HT methods provide similar measurement accuracy, the HT method has a superior measurement speed compared to the FFT method.

In this paper, a new method is developed for tool path planning on triangular mesh surfaces with consideration of the scallop height restriction and the path smoothness. This method first maps the triangular mesh surface into a unit disk region by using a harmonic map algorithm, and then the shortest boundary path graph (SBPG) is constructed on the unit disk region to describe the shortest geodesic distance from each mesh vertex to the surface boundary. The tool path is then obtained by inversely mapping the contours of SBPG from the harmonic mapped region to the physical space of mesh surface. During this process, a subdivision method is used to boost the computing efficiency and a smoothing treatment is conducted on the SBPG to improve the path smoothness. The tool path planning is performed starting from the surface boundary in an iteration process. Taking the level difference of SBPG contours as the initial path interval and being supplemented by a correction process, the maximal step distance between any two paths, which meets the requirement of scallop height restriction, can be determined efficiently. Typical simulation cases and experiments are carried out to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Biometric measurement of the anterior segment is of great importance for the ophthalmology, human eye modeling, contact lens fitting, intraocular lens design, etc. This paper serves as a comprehensive review on the historical development and basic principles of the technologies for measuring the geometric profiles of the anterior segment. Both the advantages and drawbacks of the current technologies are illustrated. For in vivo measurement of the anterior segment, there are two main challenges that need to be addressed to achieve high speed, fine resolution, and large range imaging. One is the motion artefacts caused by the inevitable and random human eye movement. The other is the serious multiple scattering effects in intraocular turbid media. The future research perspectives are also outlined in this paper.