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Graphics Software

Who Wants a 3D Scanner, Anyway? 60

Posted by Cliff from the potentially-endless-applications dept.
splineboy asks: "In June 2002 a sun-starved computer engineer walked into a small room armed with an old PC, a 20 year-old video camera, some lasers, glass rods and an awful lot of duct tape. His mission was to create a program capable of converting a real world object into a computer model that could be manipulated, stored and eventually reproduced using stereolithography. After several hours of gluing, taping and generally walloping things with a hammer, Project Splinescan was born. Originally running on a batterd old machine (AMD-500), the prototype scanner proved the concept of low cost 3D scanning with a few rough scans. Now that a stable, multi-platform 3D scanning solution is on the horizon (even high school kids are building their own) - a question rings clear through the ether: 'OK, you proved you can make it work, but what's it good for?'"
"What are the potential uses of a portable, low cost 3D scanner? Medical? Animation? Special Effects? Archeology? Ceramics? Lego Modelling? I've got my ideas about why 3D scanning seems to be getting so popular, but how would you like to see these projects developed in the future?"
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Who Wants a 3D Scanner, Anyway? More

Who Wants a 3D Scanner, Anyway?

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  • The rest of the story... (Score:5, Funny)

    by TripMaster Monkey ( 862126 ) * on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:21PM (#12990813)

    Unfortunately, soon after his triumph, his most brilliant computer game designs were stolen by one of his company's executives, who passed them off as his own. After breaking into the corporate building and hacking into the computer network to attempt to locate evidence of the theft, he mysteriously vanished, and was not heard from for some time. Eventually, he resurfaced, spouting wild tales about 'talking to programs' and 'surviving the game grid', but bearing concrete evidence of the executive's misdeeds. The prevailing explanation for his bizzare behavior is chronic drug abuse. Whatever the reason, he persists in such delusional beliefs to this day.

    Find out more about his tragic story in this [imdb.com] compelling and informative docudrama.
  • Why does the blurb say the original computer was an AMD when the article was a P3? Doesn't seem like an easy mistake...

  • blueprints (Score:3, Informative)

    by PapaZit ( 33585 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:27PM (#12990838)
    Quantapoint [quantapoint.com] uses a similar (but much more developed) system to generate blueprint for buildings.
  • maybe you can reproduce a stantart human bone by 3d scan it and then "print" it in a rapid prototyping machine (3d printer) so it can be used/attached to someone who lost his original bone :)

    • Re:medical stuff (Score:3, Insightful)

      by FLAGGR ( 800770 )
      Uh, wtf? Where are you going to buy a bone marrow milk cartridge? I think scanning the bone is the smallest technological feat in your scenario.
      • er take the word milk out of there. I was thinking of a printer that squirted milk that solidified into bones when I was typing that. See what you did to me?

      • Re:medical stuff (Score:3, Interesting)

        by cecille ( 583022 )
        Well, it's not like you're looking to replace the bone - most prosthetics / joint replacements etc. are artificial. For the doctors, the hard part is sizing, where 3d scanning probably won't be too helpful until we can generate internal scans. For the engineers who develop the actual parts though, 3D scanning is fairly common to use as a modeling tool not just for the development of the prosthetics but also in the development of surgical techniques and tools to repair the bone or actually implant the thin
    • At home?

      If you're in a hospital capable of the implant, you're probably going to have better methods of 3D scanning and reproduction. That said, you'd have to take the original bone out, scan it, and then put in the replacement, assuming the bone isn't broken as to be unscannable. If you're just talking about a "standardized" bone, a more suitable bone could be created by a doctor/engineer in CAD.
      • I am so gonna break my arm beyond belief, and gonna make a wicked sweet bone in brl-cad. Think pointy, Think fins a la batman suit. This is gonna be sweet.
      • No need to take the bone out, that's what we have CAT (computerized axial tomography) and MRI (nuclear magnetic resonance imaging) for: to take pictures of our insides without having to cut us open. Seriously, there are places that already do this and a few patents on the topic of automatically or robotically creating or custom milling a prosthesis specifically for one person's hip socket or replacing part of a pelvis or part of the zygoma after tragic accidents.

        Digital acquisition of MRI is capable of 51
    • Just one question... How do you scan a bone if you LOST it? I don't think someone else's bone would fit quite as nicely.

  • Why? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FunkyRat ( 36011 ) * <funkyrat@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:29PM (#12990848) Journal
    Custom tailored clothes ordered online.

    Combined with some NCR cutting equipment the cost could be brought down quite low.

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

      by mvdw ( 613057 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @10:19PM (#12991079) Homepage
      Ahhh, yes, I can see it now:

      "Just remove all your clothes, and step in front of the, errm, laser scanner, madam - it will take your pict- I mean, measurements, so we can have a perfect model of you..."

      • "Yes madam, we are almost done, now to get a better measure, would you please lift your right leg a bit and touch your pus.. va.. crotch, yes, crotch, and spread your fingers like this yes, yes, exactly, yeesss, yeeeeeessssssssss!"

        "Thank you.. we ... now ... have your... data."

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:33PM (#12990865)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Film Industry (Score:4, Informative)

    by Zimok ( 893058 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:38PM (#12990895) Homepage
    LOTR used this technique alot, to scan molds of armor and the orcs used in CG art.. ect

  • Aside from just game modeling... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Xaroth ( 67516 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:44PM (#12990920) Homepage
    As someone who works (more or less) within the hearing aid industry, I can tell you right now that 3D scanners are the Next Big Thing (tm) in custom medical products.

    The ability to take a mold for any sort of custom prostethic - be it an ear mold, arch support, or whatever - and then transmit that mold electronically rather than having to physically mail it is tremendous. I mean, shipping companies won't appreciate losing all that business, but any healthcare professional that has to deal with mailing dozens of custom molds a week will be overjoyed at the ability to send those scans around for free at any time of the day, and be able to trim another 2-3 days off the custom prothesis creation timeline.

    I mean, aside from the obvious speed gains that could be had for 3D modeling for movies and games.

  • The leader will be (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JustOK ( 667959 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @09:57PM (#12990978) Journal
    porn. Of course.

  • Orthodonture (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Jherico ( 39763 ) <.gro.saerdnatnias. .ta. .sivadb.> on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @10:27PM (#12991107) Homepage
    I worked at a company where 3D imaging of plaster models of teeth was a critical component to the business model. Scan teeth into computer, rearrange teeth, produce output for devices that move teeth into new positions like braces.
  • I'm playing Animal Crossing on the Gamecube at the moment, and there's a TON of low-res models, all of which had to be hand made.

    Any game where you need lots of real-world content (eg. The Sims) would benefit from being able to create lots of varied stuff quickly and cheaply.

  • 2 words: Miniatures Wargaming (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ArmorFiend ( 151674 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @10:59PM (#12991240) Homepage Journal
    3d scanning and printing will make Miniatures Wargaming a much more active hobby. Imagine, instead of waiting for Games Workshop to sell you some incredibly overpriced Space Marine, you can just copy your buddy's. Have a cool "kitbash" (homemade modification)? Publish it and let others download it. This is why I see the current business model for Games Workshop and all the other minitures companies radically changing by 2015. It will become a much more fan-centric hobby.

  • WHat it will be used for: (Score:4, Funny)

    by Noodlenose ( 537591 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2005 @11:25PM (#12991321) Homepage Journal
    Aim Penis size bragging: "You wanna see the scan of my wang, baby?" D
  • The guitar is popular with mucians even though there are more advanced technologies available.

    A different input helps the creatuve process.

    This isn't to say 3d Raytracing is obselete obviously. But this allows a differtn way of doing things.
    • What guitar replacing advanced technologies do you speak of? The only thing I can think of is the electric guitar (no more expensive resonance construction, let the amp do it!) and that seems to have enjoyed extreme success.
      • I mean, if you compare the potential of the music software and keyboard combo to the guitar (electric or whatever), we wonder why the guitar is more popular.

        Yes, there's the popularity of it but the point I'm making is that sometimes it's not the best technology that inspires most.

        Possibly not the best analogy. Just trying to say that by changing the input technology you change your way of seeing things.

  • Shadow scanning (Score:4, Informative)

    by ggambett ( 611421 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2005 @02:15AM (#12992003) Homepage
    There's an even easier and simpler alternative that doesn't even use lasers... nothing but a lamp and a ruler! http://www.vision.caltech.edu/bouguetj/ICCV98/ [caltech.edu]

    The results are remarkably good for such a simple setup.

  • CRM - That's Cutural Resource Management (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Danious ( 202113 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2005 @05:00AM (#12992520) Homepage
    Archaeologists, Paleoentologists, Museum Curators, Art Historians: anybody working with valuable but fragile artifacts that many people want to study but are afraid to handle. Scan them in, 'paint' them with a texture, then post them in a virtual museum.

    Artists could be interested in exactly the same application.

    John.
  • "Who would want a pill that makes you blind?"

    "That's Marketings' problem"
  • Manufacturing is getting pretty automated, however there's still plenty of room for more automation, such as the design.

    Say you want to manufacture a plastic or metal non-mechanical part. If you could scan it very accurately, and then have that object's dimensions and characteristics imported into a CAD program, you can then use the CAM side (Computer Aided Manufacturing) to generate code that can run in a machine.

    The implementation of this is most important, and of course your scanner would have to be e
  • OK, you realize that there are serious 3D scanners that have been on the market for many years? Products like the Cyberware Scanners [cyberware.com] are in the industry standard, used by major film studios and CG effects companies, engineers, game programmers, etc. They produce platform-independent datasets like VRML, DXF, IGES, etc etc. They use lasers to scan the surface of an object, since video has insufficient resolution to produce accurate 3D surface models (which should be obvious from looking at the crappy models f
    • OK you realise that serious steel has been on the market for many years? Products like Pittsburg steel are used by the major iron works, ship builders etc. They produce highly specialised steel to various standards. They use large expensive mills to produce accurate sttel, since mini mills have insufficent controls to proudce accurate steel.

      OK you realise that serious cameras has been on the market for many years? Products like kodak are used by the major newspapers, magazines etc. They produce high q

  • 3D Photocopy! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Think of the possibilities of photocopying in 3D! Not duplication or replication, but copying the outside of an object such as a... well... something with nothing important on the inside. But it would be cool.
  • Spare parts could be scanned in and stored in an on-board computer. When they are needed a 3D printer can print them. Saves a huge amount of space and weight.
    • it may not save as much as you'd think. Yes you'd save on having to have 2 spare of everything (or whatever), but you'd still need to cart around some raw materials for the 3D printer (and if it's built by HP, be prepared to fork out loads for a refill!!)

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