Editor’s note: This week, Quality Digest Daily will be looking at some of the key technologies on display at the Coordinate Metrology Society's annual conference (CMSC). The CMSC, taking place this year July 20–24 in Hollywood, Florida, is the gathering place for users, service providers, and original equipment manufacturers of close tolerance, industrial coordinate measurement systems, software, and peripherals.

Photogrammetry was first applied to high-precision dimensional metrology in large-scale manufacturing during the mid-1980s. Since then, the technology of image-based 3D measurement has changed dramatically, with digital cameras making possible fully automatic, noncontact 3D measurement of objects large and small. Throughout this evolution the fundamentals of photogrammetry have remained the same, and the purpose of this short article is to provide a general overview of photogrammetric technology.

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