The rangefinder was developed here at UNC, primarily by Lars Nyland, who is now at NVIDIA.  Please see http://www.cs.unc.edu/~ibr for project results. 

The DeltaSphere uses a time-of-flight infrared laser to measure distance.  Range is up to 50 feet or so.  The density of points that are captured is programmable; we typically collect about 10-15 points per degree.  One can capture data from a full hemisphere, except for just below the scanner.  In order to add color to the images, we use a digital camera and texture map the color to the 3D data using tools from 3rdTech.

The instrument was turned from a prototype (as shown at right) into a product by 3rdTech.  They have developed extensive hardware and software, and now sell a turnkey instrument.  It was the 3rdTech version, not the one on the cart, that we sent to Italy.