Patent ID: 8072450

Claim:
A computing system for measuring a three-dimensional object, the system comprising: a scanning module configured for controlling a laser scanning device to scan all surfaces of the object for obtaining a point cloud for each of the surfaces of the object; a processing module configured for obtaining an integrated point cloud of the object; a reading module configured for reading a three-dimensional (3D) model of the object from a database system; an adjusting module configured for determining a normal vector to each surface of the 3D model, and further configured for adjusting the normal vectors so as to align the normal vectors to have the same orientation, wherein the adjusting is done by using a method of adjusting normal vectors automatically or by using a method of adjusting normal vectors by designating positions, the method of adjusting normal vectors automatically comprising: (d1) determining a base surface from the surfaces of the 3D model and presetting a distance tolerance; (d2) determining boundaries of the base surface and the other surfaces of the 3D model; (d3) determining intersecting surfaces between the base surface and the other surfaces of the 3D model according to the distance tolerance and the boundaries; (d4) selecting the intersecting surfaces whose normal vectors are the same as the normal vector of the base surface; and (d5) adjusting the normal vectors of the selected intersecting surfaces; an aligning module configured for aligning the integrated point cloud with the 3D model; a contrasting module configured for contrasting the integrated point cloud and the 3D model, and highlighting differences between the integrated point cloud and the 3D model by assigning different colors on the 3D model; and at least one processor configured for executing the scanning module, the processing module, the reading module, the adjusting module, the aligning module, and the contrasting module.