An imaging apparatus for large area imaging of a body portion of a vertebrate, having an optical scanner for generating image data, an image data processing unit for generating a primary skeleton image of the bone and/or joint structure from the image data of the body surface and stored standard skeleton images. A sensing head scans a depth scan image of the body portion stepwise or a sensing device senses bony references in the body portion. Markers mark the position and orientation of the sensing head or device for spatial orientation, and a navigation base station records spatial positions of the markers. A scanning data-processing unit produces a corrected skeleton image and/or anatomical rotational points of the body portion based on the primary skeleton image and on the depth scan image provided with position data and/or the position data of the bony references scanned with the sensing device.
