Abstract: Due to its portability and great maneuverability, a hand-held range sensor is a flexible solution or complement to efficiently digitize the 3-D shape for a wide variety of objects. This paper firstly presents a review of the existing hand-held technologies. Although the designation encompasses various system configurations, the structured light pattern, if any, and sensor positioning are key elements. A trinocular configuration with two synchronized cameras and a light pattern projector is then proposed and tested experimentally. To eliminate the necessity for an external positioning device, a set of points are projected in the scene using a fixed and independent projector. The proposed configuration reveals interesting characteristics for calibration and measurement robustness.