Laser range scanner

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A laser range scanner acquires three dimensional geometry by scanning a laser across an object. The device measures the time of flight or the phase shift of the laser pulse to determine the distance from the scanner to each point on the object that the laser reflects off of.

"Object" can be a discrete object, a small environment such as a room, a larger environment such as a group of historic structures, or an entire landscape surveyed from the air. See lidar.

A laser range scanner produces a point cloud of three dimensional points representing the object scanned.