I know. It’s dinner conversation that goes right along with slamming your hand in the potatoes of the person right next to you. POTATO HAND SLAM… “So, What in the world is Qi Pan up to these days at the ol’ Cambridge University Engineering Department?”
One word for ya. Rowdiness. The boy has spun out a doctoral paper featuring new scanning technology he’s named ProFORMA. He explains it as ‘On-line Rapid Model Acquisition’, but we all know those are just fancy words for what we all lovingly know as… 3D SCANNING. How does it work? Take a look.
ProFORMA, a system designed to enable on-line reconstruction of textured 3D objects rotated by a user’s hand. Partial models are created very rapidly and displayed to the user to aid view planning, as well as used by the system to robustly track the object pose. The system works by calculating the Delaunay tetrahedralisation of a point cloud obtained from on-line structure from motion estimation which is then carved using a recursive and probabilistic algorithm to rapidly obtain the surface mesh.
Yeah, you thought that was the way to go about it all, but while you were reading SolidSmack, Qi Pan was busy putting recursive algorithms to work. The modeling process goes something like this.
1) Feature Tracking 2) Point Cloud 3) Delaunay Tetrahedralisation 4)Carved mesh 5) Texture mapping
Here’s the video.
That’s a lot of Delaunies. Simply astounding.
More 3D for Product Development?
This is the tech 3D dreams are made of. Suddenly, the ability to get real-time 3D data into your models (via a dirt-cheap peripheral) doesn’t seem so odd. As long as the mesh can be converted into a readable format, we should be able to soak in the reality of quickly rendered scans. With the speed at which Qi is showing this happen, you’ll have reference data inside your model in minutes.
This puts 3D back on the hardware side of design and that is interesting in light of where 3D is (feasibly) heading with touch and mobile devices. How about a mobile app that scans 3D and sync directly to your database/model/part library? Now we just have to wait to see which CAD company is gonna jump on this tech first.
Get the poster and more videos here.
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Hmmmm ProFORMA, arrrgghhhhh *Homer Simpsons style*
This is amazing! Mount that baby on a helicopter combine it with Google earth and go go go.
Think of modelling a house or a huge complex e.g. a new factory, just have the furniture/machines scanned like this and VOLA its right there in your model.
It would save us 100's of modelling hours.
I say, SolidWorks go for it!
I found this one pretty cool, too:
http://www.david-laserscanner.com/
JM
I thinking anyone who's involved in the digital display of data is gonna get some wild ideas after seeing this. they better. lots of potential.
Those are cool. Ben Eadie (solidmentor) used that to show how to do scanning on the cheap. The thing that is different about the proforma tech is the ability to augment and render real-time. awesome stuff. thanks.
Having used David and Next Engine, I can't tell you how exciting it is too see something that is so fast. I mean FAST. If a Next Engine scanner was a Porsche, this thing looks like the Millennium Falcon. Wow. I think I just declared how dorky I really am.
For those who don't know, as sweet as current scanners are, they only scan from a single view at a time and then have to assemble those views. Sometimes they auto align, and a lot of the time, it takes a lot of post-scan work to get it going. On top of that, there is a LOT of prep that has to be done doing things like making reference marks on the surface. And holes that have to be filled afterwards…
The more I write about it, the more I feel abused by Next Engine. Anyhow, I can't wait for this to come out, you know, when it does… and if I can afford it.
This is all coming and there's more than one outfit working on it. Last week Autodesk demonstrated how they they got a point cloud construct of the inside of an entire building using some Faro technology. And if it can be done via webcam, you can bet we'll be able to do it with our phones.
That's really great…
my compliment, sir
That's really great…
my compliment, sir
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