Optical scanners are used in the woodworking industry to detect various defects, such as dead and live knots, cracks, and fibre distortions, which are important for the visual appearance grading of wood. Data from scanning is also used to assess mechanical properties such as bending and tensile strength, for the purpose of machine strength grading of sawn timbers. Knowledge of annular ring width and location of pith in relation to board cross-sections, and how these properties vary in the longitudinal direction of boards, is relevant for many purposes, such as assessment of shape stability and mechanical properties of timber. Therefore, the purpose of the present research is to evaluate possibilities to determine annular ring width and location of pith on the basis of scanning of surfaces parallel to the longitudinal board direction. The first step of this novel method is to identify clear wood sections, free of defects along boards. Then time-frequency analysis is applied to assess the variation of light intensity over surfaces of these sections, such that local wavelengths, related to the annular ring width patterns are detected on all four surfaces around the board. Finally, the location of pith is calculated by comparing annular ring width distributions on the different surfaces, and assuming that annular rings are concentric circles with the pith in the centre. Results indicate that optical scanners and the suggested method allow for accurate detection of annular ring width and location of pith along boards.