Patent ID: 7414732

Claim:
A method for determining the 3D shape of an object ( 5 ), comprising the steps of: measuring, with a sensor, several overlapping imaged regions of the object ( 5 ), having the same orientation to said sensor to generate several corresponding 3D data sets therefrom with reference to a 3D sensor coordinate system, simultaneously measuring a position of at least one reference object ( 4 ), with said sensor ( 1 , 2 ) during said measuring step, and linking, via a coordinate transformation, the several corresponding 3D data sets in said 3D sensor coordinate system with said simultaneously measured position of the at least one reference object ( 4 ) with reference to a three-dimensional coordinate system, and determining the 3D shape of the object ( 5 ) based upon said linking step without pre-determining said position of the at least one reference object ( 4 ) relative to the object ( 5 ).