Fluid surface imaging using microlens arrays

Abstract

The paper describes a new technique for measuring surface slopes at the air–water interface. A microlens array is employed to optically sample the fluid surface at a large number of measurement points in parallel. The focal plane image of the lenslet array is recorded by a standard video camera, generating a data set of typically 4000 candidate samples for each video frame. The displacement of the focal spots is analyzed using a cross-correlation technique augmented by a topological identification algorithm which makes use of the hexagonal structure of the lenslet array. Surface height profiles are computed by integrating the surface slope field.

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