Patent ID: 8520220

Claim:
An apparatus for measuring the dimensions of an object having a surface, comprising: an opto-electronic sensor system, comprising: an illumination device comprising a laser transmitter and a scanner device, the scanner device arranged to sweep a laser-beam from the transmitter over the object in a laser scan sector; a device for receiving light that has been reflected from the object, the receiving device having a field of view, such that the laser transmitter and the receiving device are located with the laser scan sector overlapping the field of view; and a means for optically splitting the laser scan sector and the field of view into a plurality of sectors, such that each sector defines a unique viewing point, either actual or virtual, from which at least a partial view of the object is obtained, the optical splitting means arranged for shared use by the illumination device and the receiving device, in order to maximize an area of the object surface that is visible from at least one of the viewing points; and an electronic processing device, communicated to the opto-electronic sensor system and comprising: means for calculating the time the light beams take to travel to and from the object; and means for causing the scanner device to sweep the laser beam over the object.