Three-Dimensional Stereometric Measurement System Using Optical Scanners, Cylindrical Lenses, And Line Sensors

A simple and low-cost 3-dimensional stereometric measurement system has been developed which measures the shape of object by means of trigonometry. This system is composed of an X-Y optical scanner, cylindrical lenses and line sensors. A laser beam is incident on an object and is scanned over the area of interest by the optical scanner. Cartesian coordinates of a laser spot hit by the laser beam in a three dimensional space are determined simply and at high speed through the combined use of cylindrical lenses and line sensors. The cylindrical lens makes a line focus and, therefore, the coordinates of a light spot is projected onto a line orthogonal to the axis of the cylindrical lens. The position of the line focus in a line sensor can easily be measured by detecting the photo-cell which indicates the maximum output. Preliminary experiments suggest that the shape of the human torso surface can be measured with fairly good accuracy.