Patent ID: 8140295

Claim:
An auto-referenced sensing device for scanning an object to provide three-dimensional surface points in an object coordinate system, comprising: a Light-Emitting Diode (LED) light source emitting light for illuminating and enabling image acquisition of at least a portion of a set of retro-reflective target positioning features, wherein each of said retro-reflective target positioning features is provided at a fixed position on said object; a laser pattern projector, additional to said LED light source, for providing a projected laser pattern on a surface of said object for illuminating and enabling image acquisition of dense points between at least two of said retro-reflective target positioning features in said portion of said set; at least a pair of cameras each for simultaneously acquiring a 2D image of said object, wherein both said projected laser pattern and said portion of said set of retro-reflective target positioning features are apparent on said simultaneous images, a spatial relationship between said pair of cameras being known, said LED light source being provided in close proximity to said at least said pair of cameras; wherein said portion of said set of retro-reflective target positioning features reflect at least part of said light emitted by said LED light source towards said cameras; wherein said simultaneous images acquired by said pair of cameras contain both positioning measurements made available from said portion of said set of retro-reflective target positioning features apparent on said images and dense surface measurements made available from said points enabled by said projected laser pattern apparent on said images.