A sensor and method of determining the orientation of an object, such as the alignment characteristics of a tire and wheel assembly mounted on a vehicle, includes projecting a plurality of light planes from a first light projector onto a tire and wheel assembly to form a plurality of generally parallel illumination lines on a tire of the tire and wheel assembly, receiving a reflected image of at least some of the illumination lines with a photo electric device reflected from the tire at an angle relative to a projecting angle of the first light projector, and determining a plane defined by spatial coordinates from a selected point located on each illumination line imaged by the photo electric device, with the plane representing the orientation of the tire and wheel assembly.