Philippe “Philo”Hurbain is a master LEGO hacker. How do we know? He’s built something truly amazing out of LEGO to solve a 3D problem. He normally posts tips and tricks for using LEGO Mindstorms® NXT®, showing folks how to build all manner of things.
One problem, though: while many LEGO projects involve relatively straightforward duplication of life-size objects such as buildings or machines, what happens when the object you’d like to LEGO-ize is highly irregularly shaped? This can happen often if your subjects are biological, as those DNA-ridden creatures don’t often have straight edges.
Philo’s solution was to build himself a 3D Scanner to digitally capture the 3D model of those difficult subjects. Of course, he built it out of LEGO.
He realized that:
The solution came with 2008 LEGO Technic sets that include a new part, the linear actuator. These nifty device convert the rotation movement of a motor into a linear movement. Coupled with the high resolution of NXT encoder, I had all the elements to build a 3D scanner, precise enough for my purpose.
The result is the scanner pictured above. It’s very slow, as you’ll see in his video, but regardless it’s pure coolness. Well done, Philippe!
