Convert image of an irregular surface to it's signal equivalent I want to take the image of an irregular object , say

 

and then I want to convert the  elevation of the points into a spatial signal. To make my point clear: the signal would be 'height of the object's surface from an assumed datum' vs 'distance'. 

For example 

 

this is the kind of signal that I want to construct from my image.

What software/tool can I use to convert my image to it's signal equivalent?
As I can see from comments, you are taking multiple images from the same camera at diferent angle. So what you might be looking for is Structure from motion .This is similar to Stereo vision. You can find open source solutions and software tools available here. Good luck.