Patent ID: 7167584

Claim:
An apparatus for opto-electronically acquiring three dimensional shapes of an object, the apparatus comprising: a continuous spectrum light source ( 14 ); an illumination slot ( 16 ) on an optical axis in front of the source ( 14 ); an optical chromatic image forming system ( 18 ) for forming an image on the object ( 10 ) and sensing light reflected by the object ( 10 ): spectral analysis means ( 30 ) for the reflected light; and data processing means ( 32 ) coupled to the spectral analysis means ( 30 ); characterized in that it comprises a mirror ( 26 ) placed on the optical axis ( 12 ) between the illumination slot ( 16 ) and the optical system ( 18 ) to intercept the light rays output from the illumination slot ( 16 ) on the optical axis ( 12 ) in the direction of the object ( 10 ) and to also intercept light reflected from the object ( 10 ) and output from the optical system ( 18 ) and deviate it.