Patent ID: 7245387

Claim:
A three-dimensional measuring instrument, comprising: an illuminating means having a striped light intensity distribution for simultaneously illuminating at least two light component patterns with different wave length components and different relative phase relationships onto at least a measurement object and a substantially planar surface; an image retrieval means which retrieves images of reflected lights from the measurement object and the substantially planar surface illuminated with the light component patterns separately for each light component; and a computing means which calculates relative phase angles among the light component patterns based on at least two image data from the image retrieval means which are derived from images of reflected lights from the substantially planar surface for each light component, where the computing means calculates at least a height of the measurement object based on at least two image data from the image retrieval means which are retrieved from the light reflected from the measurement object for each light component and also based on said relative phase angles, a relationship between the brightness and locations of lines crossing the stripes illuminated onto the substantially planar surface is formulated in a chart and the relative phase angler are calculated based on data retrieved from the chart.