A method is provided for calibrating a structured light system. The structured light system comprises, a camera, a processor and a projector that emits light at an unknown pattern. According to this method, the projector emits an unknown pattern at two different distances relative to the camera's location, and the camera captures the pattern that was projected at the different distances
The processor then determines the vertical disparity between the two captured images and estimates a relative orientation between the camera and the projector. This estimation in turn is applied in the calibration of the structured light system.