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.
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...