Abstract
An automatic method is proposed for capturing the surface topography of a three-dimensional object without any contact. The "deformed grating pattern" appears when the reference grating is projected onto the specimen and observed from a point off the optical axis of projection. The deformed pattern input into a computer by an ITV camera is analyzed to give three-dimensional coordinates of the superficial points of the object. The spacial accuracy of measurement is proved to be under 1% around the central part of the field. An additional method of getting measuring points dense by shifting the grating is also described with some applications in practice.
