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Intel Putting 3D Scanners In Consumer Tablets Next Year, Phones To Follow
Zothecula writes: Intel has been working on a 3D scanner small enough to fit in the bezel of even the thinnest tablets. The company aims to have the technology in tablets from 2015, with CEO Brian Krzanich telling the crowd at MakerCon in New York on Thursday that he hopes to put the technology in phones as well.
Is the next step to add a 3D printer into the bezel of laptop displays?
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I think this is totally awesome, really I do. But I'm not really sure what I'd use it for.
What sort of everyday things would someone use a scanner for? (No, scanning a widget to make a 3d printed version of it does not count as everyday.)
Does this mean celebrities will need to use Blender instead of Photoshop in the future?
It's telling that the article doesn't mention one practical application. Intel's next step for 2016: Attempt to create demand for 3D scanners in consumer tablets.
Perhaps a "Measure My Cat" app?
This is a nice thing in the long run (once 3D printers are more widely spread, better and cheaper), but in the short run this will probably cause more trouble than it is worth. :)
Thinking about a younger person, like my son, who might scan some of his toys,gimmicks,... and post those scans somewhere and about some lawyer suing because he violated some laws he wasn't really aware of.
-> once 3D printers are more wide-spread the fun really starts
I bought the LG 920 Optimus 3D phone some years ago. Awesome 3D screen, 2 x HD cameras for taking 3D photos. Fun for 14 days, after that...it just became an annoyingly big bulgy battery guzzling smartphone just like any other oversized phone out there.
3D TV? I so wanted them when they came out. After a while with very little use for them I thought Meh... and after an even longer while, the 3D tv sets went for a few hundred dollars, even in 50" sizes. I still thought...Meh...I'll stick to my old 47" LG full HD tv.
Same thing with Kinect, fun the first few days, fun to also connect it to the PC and play with all the hacks out there....same issue, technically useless stuff, fun...for a little while, but ultimately useless.
3D scanners? Meh... it'll probably be another fad, scan your objects, watch them on a 3D screen kind of like my Optimus 3D phone or the Nintendo 3DS...novelty item at best.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
1) Remodeling - just walk into your bathroom, wave the phone around, go to hardware store and ask your phone, "How many 4" tiles do I need" 2) Digitize custom Lego models.... or your house. 3) My weed-wacker has a broken plastic bit, scan the bit, edit it to not be fractured, tell someone with a 3D printer to send me an un-broken version. you're welcome.
There's noting innovative or interesting about this kind of 3D scanning technology. It has no purpose, and will only be part of some "spec war" that goes on in the android phone circles. People just don't need - or want - 3D scanners in their phones.
Until 2019, when Apple includes the most revolutionary thing to ever occur in a phone - and it's the one thing you can't live without. The i3D module will be what turns the mobile device market on it's head.
(Sorry for the troll. Sooo many Apple fanbois on my FB feed these last few days. NFC payments, big screens, and optical image stabilization are the second coming, apparently. I just had to lash out.)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
From what little we can see in that single photo of the output it looks like the home 3D scanner produces blurry, inaccurate objects with lots of artifacts and errors. Wait a minute. That will fit right in with the current state of home 3D printers. Score!!
Someday you may be able to:
Got a non-barcoded product you can't identify? 3D scan it and automatically identify the make/model and shop for it.
Get sized for clothing without stepping into a store, and then get tailored clothes straight from a factory via an Internet order.
View 3D models of everything as you shop online.
That's just a few retail-centric ideas. I imagine there's also applications possible in the arts, gaming, etc.
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Anthony Weiner should be happy that his negative press was only in 2d!
The problem with these cameras is that often the data are so noisy that it's difficult to segment anything usable for a modelling environment. Theyre great for rough mapping, augmented reality and for gesture sensing, but for high resolution capture: no. I assume they're using time-of-flight/photonic mixing technology which has exploded in popularity recently now that the sensors are being mass produced. Don't forget they'll be crap outdoors too where background NIR is so high that it swamps the sensor.
If you can include very robust filtering and averaging then the data will probably be good enough for something like "map my room and plan where to put furniture". There are loads of areas where 3D vision is used daily, mostly in industrial settings, and there may well be a use case for rugged tablets there for e.g. parts inspection. Maybe someone in QA would be equipped with a 3D camera and pings when a part comes out malformed. In practice this is already highly automated using software like MV Halcon and laser line scanning. Perhaps there's a use-case for delivery services for mapping the bounding box of a parcel without needing to measure it.
For consumers, the answer is: not much, yet. There might be gimmicky applications where you can take a 3D photo and rotate around to get a better angle. Gesture sensing is usually rubbish, waving your hands around is a tiring experience for most people and it gets boring quickly.
And I guess you can only use it with the intel super-bloat app which ships with your device, and has a trial of 40 days, after which it costs money, and needs an intel.com account.
Will there be free drivers or at least a datasheet?
What for?
I imagine there's also applications possible in the arts, gaming, etc.
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Imagine targeted penis enlargement ads!
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The best way to generate interest is include it with something the consumer would buy anyway and let them tell their friends what they did with it.
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I've never seen a camera of any sort (2D or 3D) that didn't have it's style completely and utterly cramped by a small piece of humble black electrical tape, judiciously applied.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!