Build your own 3D scanner: 3D photography for beginners

  • Authors:
  • Douglas Lanman;Gabriel Taubin

  • Affiliations:
  • Brown University;Brown University

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

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Abstract

Over the last decade, digital photography has entered the mainstream with inexpensive, miniaturized cameras for consumer use. 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 a modest budget. This course provides a beginner with the necessary mathematics, software, and practical details 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.