This paper describes a method for identifying planar surfaces and cylindrical objects in a scene and getting their geometrical information; the orientation and perpendicular distance to a plane and the radius and center of a cylinder. The vision system consists of a TV camera and two flash lamps. The lamps are switched on alternately, and images under each lighting are taken at two different points. Under a point light source, even on a planar surface, there is a distribution of luminance due to diffuse and specular reflections. If the two light sources are arranged at appropriate positions with respect to the camera, the positions of the peak of the luminance distribution on each surface directly give such geometrical information on the surface. Our approach is based on measuring the peak positions. This method promises to speed up the acquisition of geometrical information on an entire scene considerably, because the geometrical information on target objects can be obtained without analyzing range maps. Since the equipment setup is very simple, the proposed technique would be useful, for example, for real-world robotic applications such as navigation of indoor mobile robots. The experimental results show that the method is sufficient for such purposes.