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AutoCAD has you covered: 123D Catch. Generate 3D designs from many 2D photos.

2) The FAQ states that if you don't have a printer, there are many places that will print parts for you. I assume this means that the output format *isn't* proprietary, possibly a bog-standard stl file that you can have printed anywhere.

Apparently the software is just a branded Autodesk Tinkerplay. Surprisingly enough, Autodesk seems to be serious about consumer-level 3D printing and they seem to get that proprietary is pretty much a non-starter at the moment.

Wouldn't that make an awesome app, building *real* 3d scenes, and making the models available for export in a variety of formats and with direct-links for popular functions (editing apps, export to popular 3d printing services, etc)?

Look into photogrammetry software like the cloud-based 123D Catch and the defiantly offline Agisoft PhotoScan - they'll turn loads of conventional photos into arbitrary 3D models. The former is probably closest to your request!

I've been playing around with the latter software recently - the required photography is pretty difficult to master, but it's a rather useful tool. Here's a geometry-only render of a statue I scanned as an example - there's a full texture map for the model as well, but this is showing off the frankly implausible levels of geometrical detail you can get from a physical object. (Excuse the noisy crevices - I was shooting hand-held at ~9am in the middle of winter on a cloudy day...) It's terrible at shiny objects (reflections confuse the hell out of it) and system requirements are pretty steep - it'll eat however many CPU and GPU cores you throw at it, and the more memory the better - but the results are well worth it.

123D Catch

Photoscan

Bundler

etc.

The multiple-flash light source thing is a good idea. Someone did that about seven years ago with a modified Canon PowerShot. They had four flash units, one at each corner of the case, and it would take four pictures, one with each flash. The paper shows the test setup, but later they built a camera with the four flash units built in.

This Kickstarter project doesn't really produce a 3D model by itself. You need an external stitching program to put multiple images together into a model, they say.

Programs for building a model from multiple 3D images have been around for 15 years or so. Much of the early work was done at U.C. Berkeley. A Stanford group did a lot of high-res work, including imaging parts of the Vatican. Autodesk 123Catch, can build a 3D model from a collection of images without a special camera.

It's called 123D Catch. They have an iPhone app and everything...

http://www.123dapp.com/catch

123D catch creates actual 3d models. in fact, any 123d catch demo is more impressive than this.. this is mostly useful for post process 3d effect to movies, it's one direction.

http://www.123dapp.com/catch

How about Autodesk's 123D http://www.123dapp.com/ . If you want something designed more for engineering than artistic work. It's free of charge.

123D Design from Autodesk is free and compatible with 3D printers.

Here's a guy who used it to replace a critical piece of a mounting bracket for his TomTom GPS.

The video gives you some insight into the workflow from design to 3D printing.

I think you can get something similar for free right now from Autodesk

Have you tried 123D Catch from Autodesk? It builds a 3D model from a few photos. Free:

http://www.123dapp.com/catch

Or just take a bunch of photos yourself and upload them to Autodesk's 123d catch and get a 3d model back. It'll stitch together a scene and make a mesh (or a mess, depending on your photo quality) of it.

From another post:

Also I'd love to shove the guy who keeps pushing the term "Maker" in a locker.

Agreed. The "Maker movement" is a product of O'Reilly Media, Inc, the people who run overpriced tech conventions. They run the various Maker Faire shows and Make magazine. They seem to be trying to own the do-it-yourself industry. The original article reads like a Maker Faire ad. I've shown at one Maker Faire, and will not do so again. You're unpaid entertainment for a flea market.

Autodesk has a straightforward motivation - they sell pro tools for designing real world stuff, and the more people who know how to use those tools, the more they can sell. They're trying to get kids and amateurs to think like design engineers.

Their big effort in this area is Autodesk 123D, which is a free subset of Autodesk Inventor with a simpler interface. It connects to laser cutters and 3D printers, so you can fabricate the parts you design. It's a useful intro to 3D design, and a way to teach kids the mindset needed to design something with working parts. (That's harder than learning to use the software.)