Taglio sensors use the triangulation principe to measure the two-dimensional profile of measuring objects, which can have differnt surface properties ranging from glossy surfaces of ground metal pieces to technical surfaces with dark scale layers.

In contrast to 1-D laser sensors where a point like laser spot is projected onto the measuring object, Taglio projects a laser line on the surface of the object. Thus the sensor gains two pieces of information by a single measurement: the distance and the location of an object point along the laser line.

By a relative translation between a 2-D laser sensor and an object, a series of profiles is measured, constituting a 3-D data set, i.e. the shape of the object is gained.