1. A method of acquiring surface shape information of a three-dimensional object, the method which comprises: providing an optical sensor configured to generate three-dimensional data from a single exposure, the sensor having a projection device and a camera; causing a relative movement between the sensor and the three-dimensional object; projecting a pattern with the projection device onto the three-dimensional object and recording a sequence of at least partially overlapping images of the projected pattern with the camera; determining a sequence of 3D data sets from the recorded images; performing a registration between subsequently obtained 3D data sets, and determining a surface shape of the three-dimensional object.