Abstract: The invention relates to a method of calculating the three dimensional surface coordinates for a set of points on the surface of an object. The method comprises the following steps: using a projector for illuminating the object with a set of fringes, adjusting the fringes, capturing a plurality of images of the surface with a camera with different fringe phase settings, processing the images to produce an absolute fringe phase map of the parts of the surface which are both illuminated by the projector and visible to the camera, and processing the fringe phase map to give a set of coordinates for points on the surface of the object. The method provides surface profiling and ranging by using temporal phase measurement interferometry (TPMI) based on a modified Carré technique.