Review of real-time three-dimensional shape measurement techniques

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art real-time three-dimensional shape measurement techniques that are capable of reconstructing the dynamic objects. In this review paper, we only concern the real-time data acquisition ability and the measurement accuracy since the real-time processing and displaying ability relies on the supporting hardware and the adopted fast algorithms instead of the measurement schemes. Based on their working principles, we divide the reviewed real-time three-dimensional shape measurement techniques into three classes: structured light, stereo vision and time of flight. Almost all the reviewed techniques use one-shot measurement scheme and thus not affected by the motion-caused vibration noises. Many measurement techniques have generated quite a lot widely-used commercial products while other measurement techniques still have a long way to go before they become mature for commercial usage. We compare the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques extensively, analyze their limitations and discuss their prospects.