Slashdot Mirror
Build a Rotisserie Scanner With Legos
WalkingBear writes "All you 3d geeks out there should take a look at this. This guy has built a 3d scanner (scans 3d objects resulting in a 2d cylindrical image map) out of a flat bed scanner and Lego. Also has a turntable style for use with digital cameras."
This user has no right to alter the use of this scanner in such a manner without a license. I will be informing the proper authorities of this illegal violation - Cmdr Taco
Well I know there will be people out there who will moan about things like this, but you got to say this i pretty f'ing cool.
This touches two vital "geek nerves" - Hack value and use of Lego.
That inner page of his is like 660KB all in, so I can see this guy's server taking a crunch real soon. His JPEGs were uber-unoptimized, so I've optimized them and put up a temporary mirror so you can all see the joy that is the rotissery scanner :-) It will disappear in a few hours or so.
Rotissery Scanner Mirror
I was genuinely interested in this story, as I'm an indie game programmer, and any easy way to generate 3D art is welcome. However, what this guy has created is not a 3D scanner. It's a 2D cylindrical scanner. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I can't see any way to convert the resulting image into a 3D mesh, at least not without some very clever software which the inventor has neglected to write.
I'm impressed. He built a very cool system. I'd be more impressed if he could devise a means in which his web page displayed in the fullness of my browser, instead of being limited to a tiny window in the center. I'm telling you, once someone conquers the "fit to window" problem this World Wide Web thing is really going to take off. Mark my words, someone will make money off it.
The funny thing is, if you read the article you'll see that he's gotten better results by just stitching digital photos together. The scanner has actually given him rather poor images (he's got a nasty light leak), and you need to be able to put the thing you're scanning on a spit...
This is great for skinning i'd like to see people finish it up with some software that will mesh the images together in a batch proccess. Then you can get as detail as you'd like (1 pixel width per shot anyone?)
But what I really would like is some info on how to make meshes. I've heard about people using lamp projectors with grids on them, shine that one the persons face and then the software can follow the gridpoints making a mesh.
Then use a similar technique to follow body movements (flashlights at all the joints/tips on a body in a dark room)
Exciting times..
With a mesh and skinning proccess simplified and cheap enough for anone interested.
First a "bone printer" and now a lego scanner. What's next, a cardboard monitor???
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
Expect to see Ron Popeil selling this soon...
"Just scan it, and forget it!"
Wouldn't the step where you have to sever your head and rubber-band it to the Lego rotisserie going to discourage all but the most hard-core game skinners? ;-)
A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
...could deproject the scanned image to represent the object from an arbitrary angle, or create an ultra-smooth animation of it rotating about the scanned axis. It's the exact analog of the way a QTVR cylindrical panorama is rendered into a window, only there you're inside the object instead of outside.
This technique could be incredibly useful for creating photorealistic views of 3D objects from any angle about one axis.
Wish I'd thought of it. Now how long until IPIX patents it?
at this link. Check his mathematical lego sculptures. It was covered in a slashdot article too.
Wait - this wasn't another BattleBots thread?
Okay, to be (relatively) serious - it's a fun adaptation, and goes far beyond the usual motorized crane / walking dinosaur constructions. It needs to be tweaked (i.e. fixing the light leak, and a few other things) before it is really usable in a practical** sense, but it gets all kinds of kudos in the "nifty idea; let's see if it works" department.
Now, if he can find a way to build a genuine 3D cylindrical scanner out of Lego(s), that would elevate him to uber-geek status in a heartbeat!
**not that practical usage ever had anything to do with building wonderful toys...
Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
I would be more impressed if somebody made a Rotisserie BBQ out of lego. Works with real gas and cooks real chicken!
:)
To make it a real trick give it a linux box to control the heat and cooking time
Better yet, put the linux box inside and cook that!
If you look all the way to the bottom, he takes that creepy warped skull image and wraps it on a 3D model to make something that almost looks like a 3D skull. It looks kind of crummy, but it's decent for a start, and much better than anything I've done in the same field (absolutely nothing).
He never explicitly says what his purpose in all this was (although he claims inspiration from the Matrix), but I guess he's wanting to use this to make it easier to get textures for 3D objects based on actual objects.
The scanner in no way reads depths though... the 3D model he uses in the end is NOT determined by the scanner. That would take a hell of a lot more work, and probably lots of those 2x1 blocks that always seem to run out.
-"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -EH