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Who Wants a 3D Scanner, Anyway?
splineboy asks: "In June 2002 a sun-starved computer engineer walked into a small room armed with an old PC, a 20 year-old video camera, some lasers, glass rods and an awful lot of duct tape. His mission was to create a program capable of converting a real world object into a computer model that could be manipulated, stored and eventually reproduced using stereolithography. After several hours of gluing, taping and generally walloping things with a hammer, Project Splinescan was born. Originally running on a batterd old machine (AMD-500), the prototype scanner proved the concept of low cost 3D scanning with a few rough scans. Now that a stable, multi-platform 3D scanning solution is on the horizon (even high school kids are building their own) - a question rings clear through the ether: 'OK, you proved you can make it work, but what's it good for?'"
"What are the potential uses of a portable, low cost 3D scanner? Medical? Animation? Special Effects? Archeology? Ceramics? Lego Modelling? I've got my ideas about why 3D scanning seems to be getting so popular, but how would you like to see these projects developed in the future?"
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Combined with some NCR cutting equipment the cost could be brought down quite low.
whenever I see this sort of thing, or rapid prototyping machines, all I can think of is that I'd like to get my hands on it for making sculpture.
I'm not even sure how I would USE it to sculpt, what kind of work I would do... I just know I'd find some way.
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I worked at a company where 3D imaging of plaster models of teeth was a critical component to the business model. Scan teeth into computer, rearrange teeth, produce output for devices that move teeth into new positions like braces.
Jherico
What can the average user can do to ensure his security? "Nothing, you're screwed"
3d scanning and printing will make Miniatures Wargaming a much more active hobby. Imagine, instead of waiting for Games Workshop to sell you some incredibly overpriced Space Marine, you can just copy your buddy's. Have a cool "kitbash" (homemade modification)? Publish it and let others download it. This is why I see the current business model for Games Workshop and all the other minitures companies radically changing by 2015. It will become a much more fan-centric hobby.
Well, it's not like you're looking to replace the bone - most prosthetics / joint replacements etc. are artificial. For the doctors, the hard part is sizing, where 3d scanning probably won't be too helpful until we can generate internal scans. For the engineers who develop the actual parts though, 3D scanning is fairly common to use as a modeling tool not just for the development of the prosthetics but also in the development of surgical techniques and tools to repair the bone or actually implant the thing.
Last summer I spent some time working with a friend of mine on his phd research. I didn't get much involved in the actual research part, but he needed some help writing some script programs to do the more tedious analysis, and of course, took the opportunity to run though some of his conference presentations with me, just for kicks. The part of the project I was helping with actually DID use 3D scans of human shoulder samples.
The 3D scans were pulled into a program called Imageware as point clouds. (Imageware an SDRC program - like IDEAS, but for analysis of models rather than creation of models...backwards IDEAS). Part of the analysis I was helping with looked at rate of change of curvature of the bone samples with and without cartilage attached. Basically it helps to model a "standard" joint to develop a artificial joints. The cartilage vs. no cartilage pictures helps out on one of the major areas of his research, which is the analysis of cartilage thickness and placement. Really helpful if you're looking to graft a sample from somewhere else. Cartilage is one of those nasty things that doesn't repair itself too well, so if you screw up your shoulder or get some damage in an area where it's probably a good idea to have a bunch of cartilage, you have to know where to transplant from. Enter the 3D model. Not only that, but a good model allows you to check out new surgical techniques for actually performing the surgery.
...no two people are not on fire.