Abstract: Since sometimes it is hard to obtain two or more images of one scene,especially history images,even so it still uneasy to self-calibrate because of the diversity,universality and randomicity of images and the variable camera parameters when taking different scenes.Single image measurement which benefits from avoiding the process of match and self-calibration of two or more images has been,in the past few years,amongst the main aims of Photogrammetry,Computer Vision,Videometrics and other fields.This paper addresses the problem of extracting geometric information from a single,uncalibrated image of a scene.Firstly,basic principles ofgeometric measurement based on single images are summarized.Secondly,approaches for single image measurement are surveyed according to their principles.Finally,several prospective focuses of this field of research are suggested.