Patent ID: 9689972
Date: 2017-06-27
CPC Classifications: G01S

Claim:
1. A laser scanner configured to measure three-dimensional (3D) coordinates of an object, comprising: a mirror configured to rotate about a first axis, the mirror having a flat reflective surface; a first portion including the mirror, the first portion configured to rotate about a second axis perpendicular to the first axis, the first portion further including a light emitter, and a light receiver, the light emitter is configured to send emitted light to the mirror for reflection onto the object, the light receiver is configured to receive from the mirror a reflected light, the reflected light being a part of the emitted light reflected by the object; one or more processors that are operably coupled to a tangible non-transitory storage medium, the light emitter and the light receiver; a display unit operably coupled to the processor, the display unit further being coupled to the laser scanner; the one or more processors being responsive to executable instructions which when executed by the processor is operable to: cause the scanner to collect gray-scale values and associated 3D coordinates in a spherical coordinate system based at least in part on the light received by the light receiver; display on the display unit reformatted gray-scale values, the reformatted gray-scale values being gray-scale values reformatted from the spherical coordinate system into a rectangular region as a planar view; the reformatted gray-scale values when reformatted from the spherical coordinate system into the rectangular region in the planar view have at least one straight line of the object scanned appearing as a curved line on the display; enable selection of a first angular range of measurement about the second axis, the first angular range of measurement being between 0 and 360 degrees; cause the laser scanner to measure first gray-scale values and associated 3D coordinates in the spherical coordinate system over the first angular range of measurement; display on the display unit the first reformatted gray-scale values, the first reformatted gray-scale values being the first gray-scale values reformatted from the spherical coordinate system into a first region, the first region being rectangular in shape, the rectangular shape of the first region extending and covering the first angular range; and save the first reformatted gray-scale values and first associated 3D coordinates on the storage medium, the first associated 3D coordinates being 3D coordinates associated with the first gray-scale values.