Looks like MakerBot has been quite busy on the wiki of late. Clothbot just pointed out a new section on their wiki devoted to documentation for a 3D scanner called “Cyclops.” From the documentation they system appears to work by projecting a series of stripes onto the subject. An iPhone or similar camera then captures video of the object, and software extrapolates the size and shape of the object by detecting how and where the stripes fall on the object. From a cursory reading of the wiki, it looks like Cyclops is essentially a lasercut wood framework for mounting the camera and pico projector – with all the heavy lifting being done by software.
Nearly a year ago I saw a video for Qi Pan’s student project, called ProFORMA, where a simple webcam was used, without the need for lasers, special backgrounds, or projected stripes, to capture video and extrapolate a point cloud to create a 3D image of a physical object. Qi Pan’s page on the Cambridge website explains much more about the process and developments since it’s publication. (Spoiler: He uses math.) The video showing the video capture and scan along with some wicked augmented reality effects.
Ever since seeing the demo video (See below), I’ve been hoping a MakerBot 3D scanner would use this software engine. Apparently the only additional piece of hardware it would require would be just the webcam. On a slightly related note… a while ago I wanted to run my MakerBot in the other room but was too lazy to want to run back and forth to monitor it. Solution? I grabbed a webcam and clipped it to the Z axis platform. I could now watch the XY platform zip around as it printed.
Unfortunately, there’s been almost no discussion of ProFORMA since November of 2009.
However, I did notice a similar product called Vi3Dim. It appears to work similarly to ProFORMA – except that it requires a black and white checker pattern underneath the object to be scanned. 1 I was expecting it to be $529.99 or something, but it turns out that the software has a free demo and a full version for $20. At that price, you really could have a MakerBot webcam 3D scanner on the cheap right now. I haven’t tried it out yet, but their website says it can scan and export to a 3DS file, a fairly universal format. The demo is almost as impressive as the ProFORMA video. :)
What I like about both the ProFORMA and Vi3Dim scanners is that they:
- Don’t require a steady rotation as with many of the open source 3D scanners out there
- Don’t require a laser
- Don’t require a special setup, beyond a black and white printed sheet or, in the case of the ProFORMA, nothing
- Don’t need milk
- Fortunately, that checker pattern can be downloaded and printed from their website. [↩]