I’m glad to share with you Lauri Põldre’s 3D scanning project. His company, 3D Technologies R&D, scanned the Piusa Cavern. Located in the south-eastern part of Estonia, it was scanned so as to build a Visitor Center (virtual museum) fitted with an interactive 3D tool. 

 Check out the demo of the virtual tour!

The caves are presented as interactive real-time 3D models that visitors can hover around using a touchscreen. Cave walls, sandstone colours and minor details such as inscriptions on the sand wall made by former visitors show in the interactive 3D tool. Visitors can also read additional info about the caverns and can make virtual tours inside the caves.

3D scanning the Piusa Cavern turned out to be an effective and innovative way to advertise and rediscover this historical site.

Creation process of a tree branch (sculpture):

• 3D scanning with the Handyscan 3D
• Enlargement to 40 feet using a post-processing software
• Shaping the 40-foot branch in M.D.F.(structure)
• M.D.F. parts are covered with plasticine to create the surface texture
• A silicone mould supported by a plaster coating is formed on the part
• The mould is opened, cleaned and ready for the wax casting process
• The wax moulds are sent to a melting room for casting.
• Once the moulds are cast in aluminum, the parts are assembled, the finishing touches are done and the surface is prepared for the patina coating
• Holes are threaded for anchor rods
• The patina is to be created with oil paints.

Wow! What a beautiful piece of art using 3D scanning! See other pictures below.

Check this out! Louis-Philippe Gendron, Computer Graphics Artist at Creaform, has produced a short animated film featuring a full-size 3D scan model of the Inukshuk that served as inspiration to the creator of the logo for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

This reproduction of an Inuit landmark, which is quite impressive (18 ft. or 6 meters tall) , was scanned on site last December. This is a good example of how real-life objects can be easily and perfectly “virtualized” and used in a wide variety of multimedia productions.

ACCURACY AND RESOLUTION IMPROVEMENT

When we think of future laser scanning, first thing that comes in mind is an accuracy and resolution improvement. But this is not the big deal…

 First parameters to consider are from an engineering point of view and are limited by price and engineering capabilities. Structural rigidity of the scanner itself has virtually no limitations if we consider new materials (ceramics) and new geometries (thermo stablility, stiffness etc). Cameras are getting more and more pixels and optics gets very high quality (price will surely lower with time).

 When talking about accuracy the real problem comes from physics limitations. This is what will ultimately stop accuracy improvement. Since surface geometry is acquire from laser light, first physical limitation to consider is wavelength of laser. Actually there is a physic theorem that states it is impossible to observe details smaller than wavelength used. Right now lasers used in 3D scanning are all visible light (between 400 and 700 nm). Maybe future laser scanners will use shorter wavelength such as UV?

 Another limitation comes from light interaction with matter. When light passes close to a sharp edge it is diffracted making the laser line to split into diffraction patterns. Light is not always reflected on the first layer of atoms of the material (what is the physical boundary between an object and space surrounding it anyway?). These considerations make it really hard to estimate the maximum accuracy achievable. Moreover when entering the physical considerations, it seems that material composition could affect precision itself.

 FORESEEN IMPROVEMENTS FOR 3D LASER SCANNING

 For 3D scanning used in Reverse Engineering (RE) and Inspection, we can foresee that the real next major evolution step will be live features recognition. Intelligent software improvement would permit to recognize, in real time, the actual geometry that is scanned. This could permit automatic reconstruction for RE, automatic alignment with CAD when inspecting and moreover it could eliminate needs for targeting! Imagine that the software recognize the parts it is scanning as a solid object: it would make it possible for the software to know where measurement is actually being taken on the part. This is truly artificial intelligence, but new development in this area (3D object reconstruction from pictures) forecast real developments right on the corner.

 Who will be first to release such technology?

They published a video on youtube, have a look.

Now, after having seen the iPhone work in conjunction with the VIUscan to deliver a really attractive and value-added Augmented Reality application, I’m speechless!

This is pure breakthrough! The VIUscan creates 3D representations of valuable artifacts that have been taken out of their original location for preservation purposes, and the University of Oslo and the iPhone work together to allow these objects to be “seen” as they were at their original location! Pure Wow.

See for yourself the demonstration of a Mobile Augmented Reality application for the iPhone, developed in the INVENTIO-project (University of Oslo), in cooperation with Memention AB.