Method of generating speckle patterns for digital image correlation based on modified Conway’s Game of Life

Abstract

The measurement accuracy of digital image correlation (DIC) is influenced by the quality of the speckle pattern. Although various models for generating random speckle patterns have been well discussed, obtaining appropriate speckle images with isotropic quality and performance could be a challenging issue in DIC. In this paper, we propose a novel (to our knowledge) method for generating speckle patterns based on modified Conway’s game of life (GoL). By sequentially assembling the speckle patterns generated from the modified GoL, we produced the GoL speckle image. Then, verification and comparison experiments were conducted through pure in-plane translations. The results show that the generated speckle image which was resized with k s =6&k r =2 processing and subsequently fuzzified using a Gaussian filter, produces the best accuracy for DIC measurement. Furthermore, based on the rigid body in-plane rotation displacement tests in the physical experimental results of three different speckle images, the GoL speckle generated from our proposed method shows the smallest measurement error. This indicates that the proposed speckle patterns generating method could provide a new type of speckle pattern with better quality and accuracy.