Three dimensional-digital image correlation(3 D-DIC) is a widely used optical metrology in the experimental mechanics community because of its reliability, practicality, and flexibility. Although the precision of digital image correlation(DIC) has been thoroughly studied theoretically and numerically, verification experiments have seldom been performed, especially for complex surfaces with a small field of view(FOV). In this work, the shape of a 1-yuan coin was measured using 3 D-DIC; the shape was complex due to the presence of many fine details, and the FOV was relatively small because the coin diameter was only 25 mm. During the experiment, a novel strategy for speckle production was developed: white paint was simply sprayed onto the surface. Black paint was not used; instead, taking advantage of the reflective nature of the coin surface, polarized light and a Polaroid filter were introduced, and the polarization direction was carefully adjusted, ensuring that the spray pattern was extremely thin and that high-quality speckle images with significant contrast were captured. The three-dimensional coin shape was also successfully determined for comparison using a stylus profiler. The results demonstrate that 3 D-DIC provides high precision in shape measurement even for complex surfaces with small FOV. The precision of 3 D-DIC can reach 1/7000 of the field of view, corresponding to about 6 μm in this experiment.
