Build your own 3D scanner: optical triangulation for beginners

  • Authors:
  • Douglas Lanman;Gabriel Taubin

  • Affiliations:
  • Brown University;Brown University

  • Venue:
  • ACM SIGGRAPH ASIA 2009 Courses
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Over the last decade, digital photography has entered the mainstream. Inexpensive, miniaturized cameras are now routinely included in consumer electronics. Digital projection is poised to make a similar breakthrough, with a variety of vendors offering small, low-cost projectors. As a result, active imaging is a topic of renewed interest in the computer graphics community. In particular, low-cost homemade 3D scanners are now within reach of students and hobbyists with modest budgets. This course provides beginners with the mathematics, software, and practical details they need to leverage projector-camera systems in their own 3D scanning projects. An example-driven approach is used throughout; each new concept is illustrated using a practical scanner implemented with off-the-shelf parts. The course concludes by detailing how these new approaches are used in rapid prototyping, entertainment, cultural heritage, and web-based applications.