Surface data acquisition, storage, and assessment system

The invention is a surface data acquisition, storage, and assessment system and more particularly a surface data acquisition, storage, and assessment system for detecting and quantifying similarities or differences between stored data and data collected from a scan. The system operates utilizing a method or process that decreases the time required for calculating a pose estimate thus increasing its performance thereby making it more practical for many applications that require real-time operations. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the system comprises one or more sensing components for scanning and measuring various surface features of an object for determining the identity of the scanned object, and determines differences between data obtained from two or more scans by comparison with a reference. Preferably the system can operate to scan numerous objects including mechanical objects, biological objects or medical conditions, artifacts, geographical objects, agricultural objects, or used in conjunction with robotic manufacturing systems, robotic surgical systems, aircraft systems, and marine applications. The invention may also include a biometric sensor for identifying a user of the system.