In this work, we implemented a three-dimensional (3-D) laser range imaging
system using the well-known self-mixing effect in a frequency-modulated sem
iconductor laser diode. The system generates 3-D point sets of a scene, usi
ng a single semiconductor laser diode serving both as the light source and
as the detector. The experimental imaging accuracy was measured to be 0.87
mm at a distance of 0.55 m after some filtering. This paper focuses on the
theoretical description of the self-mixing effect by presenting a survey of
the existing literature as it applies to our specific implementation, foll
owed by some experimental results.