Options and limitations of "Flying Triangulation"

In (Ettl et al., Proc. DGaO 2009: A13) and (Willomitzer et al., Proc. DGaO. 2010: P18) we introduced a new optical 3D measurement principle, "Flying Triangulation". A single-shot sensor acquires a series of sparse 3D views which then are automatically aligned to each other in real time. A dense 3D model is comfortably acquired in a few seconds. A hand-guided motion-robust measurement of an object surface is possible without any external tracking. We will discuss some essential options and problems of the new concept: One option is the scaleability which we exploit to build sensors for intraoral measurements, for human bodies, or even for entire rooms. Another option is the integration of color texture. We will further discuss a major information-theoretical question: What is the maximum achievable density of 3D data within one exposure, and to what extent can we approach this limit - by proper encoding of the illumination or by a posteriori unwrapping.