Patent ID: 6859269

Claim:
A surveying instrument, comprising a distance measuring unit for measuring a distance to a collimating point, an angle measuring unit for measuring a vertical angle and a horizontal angle in a collimating direction, an image pick-up means for acquiring an image in the collimating direction, a driving unit for directing said image pick-up means in a predetermined direction, and a control arithmetic unit which acquires partial images by partitioning a predetermined range including a target using said image pick-up means, synthesizes the partial images to an entire image, selects an object to be measured within the entire image, calculates a horizontal angle and a vertical angle of the selected object to be measured, and controls said driving unit based on the horizontal angle and the vertical angle, and directs the collimating direction toward the object to be measured, wherein a precise image having the object to be measured as the center is acquired, and the precise image is recorded in associating with survey data which is measured by said distance measuring unit and said angle measuring unit with respect to the object to be measured.