Wireless methods and systems for three-dimensional non-contact shape sensing

A system for acquiring an approximation of a surface geometry of a 3-dimensional object comprising:

• means for establishing an object coordinate system in known relationship to the object;
• means for projecting a pattern of structured light of known geometry onto the object;
• means for forming an image of an intersection of the pattern of structured light with the object;
• processing means for generating a set of data characterizing the intersection relative to a position of the pattern of light;
• transmitting means for transmitting some portion of the image or intersection data to a receiver;
• receiving means for receiving the transmitted processed intersection data;
• tracking means for tracking the position of the projected pattern of structured light;
• means for associating each intersection datum with the position of the projected pattern of light at the time the image corresponding to the datum was formed;
• transforming means for transforming each intersection datum into coordinates of the object coordinate system;
• and
• accumulating means for accumulating the transformed coordinates to form a model approximating the surface geometry of the object.