3D Scene Scanner and Position and Orientation System

A hand-held mobile 3D scanner for scanning a scene comprising:

• a range sensor that is arranged to sense the location of surface points in the scene relative to the scanner and generate representative location information;
• a texture sensor that is arranged to sense the texture of each surface point in the scan of the scene and generate representative texture information;
• a position and orientation sensor that is arranged to sense the position and orientation of the scanner during the scan of the scene by interacting with multiple reference targets located about the scene and generate representative position and orientation information;
• and
• a control system that is arranged to receive the information from each of the sensors and generate data representing the scan of the scene.

A portable 3D scanning system for scanning a scene comprising:

• a hand-held mobile scanner comprising:
• a range sensor that is arranged to sense the location of surface points in the scene relative to the scanner and generate representative location information;
• a texture sensor that is arranged to sense the texture of each surface point in the scan of the scene and generate representative texture information;
• and
• a position and orientation sensor that is arranged to sense the position and orientation of the scanner during the scan of the scene and generate representative position and orientation information;
• multiple reference targets for placing randomly about the scene, the position and orientation sensor interacting with detectable reference targets to sense the position and orientation of the scanner;
• and
• a control system that is arranged to control the scanner and its sensors and the reference targets, receive the information from each of the sensors, and generate data representing the scan of the scene.

A method of scanning a scene comprising the steps of:

• operating a hand-held mobile scanner to scan the scene, the scanner comprising:
• a range sensor that is arranged to sense the shape of the object(s) in the scene on a surface point-by-point basis and generate representative shape information;
• a texture sensor that is arranged to sense the texture of the object(s) in the scene on a surface point-by-point basis and generate representative texture information;
• and
• a position and orientation sensor that is arranged to sense the position and orientation of the scanner in a local reference frame by interacting with multiple reference targets located about the scene and generate representative position and orientation information;
• obtaining the shape, texture, and position and orientation information from the sensors;
• processing the shape, texture, and position and orientation information;
• and
• generating data representing the scan of the scene.