New path-following phase unwrapping algorithm based on quality-guided

The principle of the path-following phase unwrapping method is introduced briefly. In order to overcome the shortcomings in processing wrapped-phase containing phase jumps, a path-following phase unwrapping method based on a new quality-guided is proposed. The algorithm uses a quality map, which is an array of values to define the quality or goodness of each pixel of the given phase image, and unwraps the highest-quality pixels first and the lowest-quality pixels last to prevent error propagation. Unavoidable errors caused by unreliable phase data are confined to minimum area, and the integration path follows the high-quality pixels and avoids the low-quality pixels. Computer simulation shows that the proposed algorithm works successfully when complicated discontinuities exist in wrapped phase images.