Abstract
In this paper a 3D position measuring device that finds the 3D position of an arbitarily placed object using a camersa system is introduced. The camera system consists of three stepping motors and a CCD camera and a laser. The viewing direction of the camera is controlled by two stepping motors (pan and tilt motors) and the direction of a laser is also controlled by a stepping motors(laser motor). If an object in a remote place is selected from a live video image the x,y,z coordinates of the object with respect to the reference coordinate system can be obtained by calculating the distance from the camera to the object using a structured light scheme and by obtaining the orientation of the camera that is controlled by two stepping motors. The angles o f stepping motors are controlled by a SGI O2 workstation through a parallel port. The mathematical model of the camera and the distance measuring system are calibrated to calculate an accurate position of the object. This 3D position measuring device can be used to acquire information that is necessary to monitor a remote place.