Lack of image quality in caustics from metal components continues to be a major problem when using this experimental technique in reflection. Since the principles of the method are not affected by the mode of observation, the reason for such a loss of quality, compared to the transmission mode, have to be found in the surface preparation and in the optics employed. Other authors have studied ways of improving the quality of reflection caustics ~((1)), but to the authors' knowledge, no work has been done in improving the way the reflection image is analysed. This paper applies a general methodology ~((2)) based on image processing and non-linear regression to analyse reflection caustics. Since the methodology employed uses the whole caustic as a source of information, the lack of quality in the image is compensated for a more reliable means of analysing the information obtained from the caustic.
展开▼
