Investigation of profile registration with application to the FastSCAN™ range of laser scanners

Hand-held laser scanners offer a popular method for the digitisation of real world objects. A projected laser line swept over the surface of an object enables collection of a series of sweeps, each sweep comprising a group of profiles. The process of aligning profiles within a sweep is known as profile registration. This paper presents the application of the profile registration algorithm of Ferreira and Dias [ICIAR, 2005, pp.617-624] adapted for the FastSCAN hand-held laser scanner. The acquisition of suitable data with the FastSCAN scanner is detailed along with the implementation of the algorithm to suit this type of data. Results presented for a variety of objects indicate the potential of this technique to improve the alignment of profiles.