Patent ID: 7630537

Claim:
A three-dimensional shape measurement apparatus comprising: a first three-dimensional sensor having a projecting device for projecting a light pattern on a target area, and an image capturing apparatus placed at a first interval from the projecting device to capture an image of the target area on which the light pattern is projected; a second three-dimensional sensor having a projecting device for projecting a light pattern on the target area, and an image capturing apparatus placed at a second interval longer than the first interval from the projecting device to capture an image of the target area on which the light pattern is projected; three-dimensional information computing means for obtaining external shape information on an object present in the target area based on a first shift of the pattern on an image acquired with the first three-dimensional sensor, wherein said first shift of the pattern is a shift from a base image captured at a time point at which the object is not present in the target area to a captured image captured at an arbitrary time point at which the object is present in the target area; variation information computing means for obtaining variation information on the object based on a second shift of the pattern on the image acquired with the second three-dimensional sensor, wherein said second shift of the pattern is a shift from a reference image captured at a first arbitrary time point at which the object is present in the target area to a captured image captured at a second arbitrary time point after the first arbitrary time point with enough time interval for detecting a movement of the object and at which the object is present in the target area; and information composing means for composing the external shape information and the variation information.