Abrasive Surfaces Measured by Digital Optical Stereopsis

The principle of stereopsis involves measuring an object’s geometry from a pair of images taken at slightly different viewing positions. This technique is frequently used for geographical mapping in satellite-based reconnaissance, however, the same practice has not been reliably applied at the other end of the scale spectrum: i.e. optical microscope imaging. The impediments have been identified and addressed in this work, concluding that optical stereopsis can be applied to microscopical surface examinations, and that the resulting digital elevation models can be of particular use in tribological investigations for performance and failure analysis.