An optical profilometer-a new instrument for the three dimensional measurement of cleft palate casts.

A technique is described for obtaining spatial characterization of three dimensional cleft palate surfaces using a noncontact optical profilometer. The operational design is discussed and an evaluation of the system is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of its use for the measurement of cleft palate casts. Measurement results are presented for several test surfaces and cleft palate casts. Accuracy in the X axis is +/- .79 mm., in the Y axis it is +/- 1.3 mm and in the Z axis +/- .46 mm.