Patent ID: 7751063

Claim:
A multiple channel interferometer projector for projecting fringes onto a surface of an object, comprising: a plurality of interferometer channels each having a spatially separate optical axis and adapted to project a fringe pattern onto the surface of the object, each interferometer channel comprising: a diffraction grating disposed on a respective one of the spatially separate optical axes; an objective in optical communication with the diffraction grating to focus coherent beams propagating from the diffraction grating; and a spatial filter disposed on the respective one of the spatially separate optical axes to receive the focused coherent beams and to transmit an ordered pair of coherent beams, wherein the ordered pair of coherent beams interfere to generate the projected fringe pattern; and a translation stage coupled to the plurality of diffraction gratings, the translation stage adapted for spatial translation of the diffraction gratings along a direction perpendicular to the spatially separate optical axes to phase shift the projected fringes.