Four MakerBot Digitizer Implications

We’re certain most of you have heard of MakerBot’s latest device: The Digitizer. It’s a relatively inexpensive 3D scanner designed for prosumer use. As the first 3D scanner that could hit a mass audience, we pondered what it might mean. What happens when large numbers of people own a 3D scanner. Here’s our predictions:   … Continue reading Four MakerBot Digitizer Implications

The MakerBot Digitizer: Now Available

As expected, MakerBot released their newest product today: the MakerBot Digitizer. It’s an inexpensive turntable-based 3D scanner directed at consumers and professionals.    MakerBot has taken steps to simplify the process of using the scanner itself. You simply drop an object on the turntable and start the process. The turntable rotates slowly, exposing the object… Continue reading The MakerBot Digitizer: Now Available

Fuel3D’s Harker Offering

We wrote recently on Fuel3D’s new 3D scanner, just launched on Kickstarter. While the project has been quite successful, gaining more than three times their goal of USD$75,000, they’ve created even more reason to buy one of their devices: Fuel3D has teamed with noted 3D print artist Joshua Harker, who has produced a unique design… Continue reading Fuel3D’s Harker Offering

Fuel3D: An Inexpensive 3D Scanner

There seems to be many developments in 3D scanning recently, including the unexpected announcement of a new, very inexpensive handheld 3D scanner from Fuel3D.    The new scanner uses a combination of geometric and photometric sensing to produce a highly accurate (up to 0.25mm resolution) 3D model in either STL or (color textured) PLY formats. … Continue reading Fuel3D: An Inexpensive 3D Scanner

The Coney Island Scan-A-Rama

If the title of this project, the Coney Island Scan-A-Rama, sounds suspicious, consider that the person behind it is called “The Great Fredini”.    In reality, Scan-A-Rama is a project by Brooklyn-based Fred Kahl, who hopes to build an inexpensive 3D Scanning Portrait Studio in, where else, Coney Island.    We’ve seen several experiments in… Continue reading The Coney Island Scan-A-Rama

3D Model Captured With Google Glass

Google Glass is a set of glasses that include processing, networking and sensory elements. It’s an experimental platform upon which developers many now invent new kinds of applications. One such experiment is Todd Blatt’s 3D scanning project.    The glasses themselves do not have the processing capability to generate a 3D model, nor do the… Continue reading 3D Model Captured With Google Glass

Skanect Under New Management

Skanect is now part of Occipital, Inc., according to an announcement by Skanect. Skanect produces one of the most powerful systems for capturing casual 3D scans with a Microsoft Kinect.    Occipital produces 360 degrees panoramas and related computer vision products, so acquiring Skanect seems like a logical extension of their existing business.    The… Continue reading Skanect Under New Management

Long Range 3D Scanning Demonstrated

3D scanning is a tricky business. Whether you’re using a USD$50,000 unit or a USD$100 Microsoft Kinect, none will meet all possible scanning requirements. You might require super-fine detail of a small object, or perhaps you’re scanning a building, or simply just grabbing a scan of your girlfriend’s face for a quick 3D print.   … Continue reading Long Range 3D Scanning Demonstrated

The Photon 3D Scanner

Tired of designing your own 3D CAD models? Worn out from endless searching 3D repositories for that specific 3D design? If so, why not scan your own physical objects and replicate them? Usually you can’t because 3D scanning is frequently an expensive proposition.    But that could change with the introduction of the Photon 3D… Continue reading The Photon 3D Scanner

3D Captured Tattoos

We’re looking at an unusual 3D scanning project on Kickstarter: the “3d tattoo body art scanner” by UK artist Lee Wagstaff. Wagstaff is notable as he was the first person to use his own body art as presentation material during his Master’s degree defense.    Having such an incredible array of intricate tattoos poses a… Continue reading 3D Captured Tattoos

The MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner

MakerBot announced, but did not release, a personal 3D scanner at SXSW yesterday that could dramatically change how personal 3D printers are used and accepted by the general public.   Perhaps the biggest problem facing home 3D printer owners today is finding the right 3D models to print. Unless one is a designer equipped with… Continue reading The MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner

Point And Shoot 3D Scanning

The folks at Lynx Lab have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the initial units of their “Lynx A Camera”. It’s  designed to be a point and shoot 3D camera, capable of capturing 3D shapes as well as motion.    The Lynx A tries to put all the elements of 3D scanning in… Continue reading Point And Shoot 3D Scanning

Questions About Skanect

Manctl’s new version of Skanect should permit easy 3D scanning by anyone with a Microsoft Kinect and a computer. However, we wondered about several aspects. We asked Manctl’s Nicolas Burrus a few questions about the new version.    Fabbaloo: The new release seems to be Windows only. Any hope of a Mac or Linux version… Continue reading Questions About Skanect

A New Version of Skanect

Readers may recall Skanect, a software tool that uses an inexpensive Microsoft Kinect to produce 3D scans of room-sized areas. Now creator Manctl has released a new version of Skanect that’s much more powerful.    The new version is capable of taking 3D scans of objects instead of rooms. They’ve re-engineered the program to include… Continue reading A New Version of Skanect

The iScan 3D App

A new app promises to enable generation of instant 3D models right from your iPhone. iScan3D by Digiteyezer works using a combination of images and a cloud service.    Here’s how it works: your subject remains still while you move about taking between 5 and 30 images. Presumably it would help if there wasn’t much… Continue reading The iScan 3D App

DAVID Laser Scanner Updated

The inexpensive DAVID Laser Scanner has been updated to version 3.0 with some interesting improvements. This device can be used to capture complete digital 3D models of physical objects – which you can then print, of course.    For some time the scanner has supported laser scanning, but now version 3.0 adds the ability to… Continue reading DAVID Laser Scanner Updated

The Spinscan

Thingiverse user tbuser has been working on an open source version of a 3D scanning turntable, complete with cross-platform software. While 3D printer owners are amazed at their ability to produce things, it gets a bit more tricky to create models. Scanning is obviously a great way to get great models for printing – or… Continue reading The Spinscan

The Ultimate Scanner?

University of Southampton researchers have a new tool available: a high-energy 3D scanner. The design of this scanner is fascinating: it’s actually five different scanners in one, each capable of handling different resolution levels. When combined in this integrated system, the scanner is capable of scanning down to an astonishing 200 nanometers. All this within… Continue reading The Ultimate Scanner?

Amazing iPhone 3D Scanner

Shapeways has uncovered a really intriguing iOS app: Trimensional. This simple app uses a four-way flash to roughly capture the shape of a face or other object held motionless as far as 20cm away from the front-facing camera. Since the front camera is used by the app, it’s only available for iPhone 4’s and the… Continue reading Amazing iPhone 3D Scanner

Capture That Onion!

Last year artist David Bowen produced a fantastic kinetic artwork entitled “growth modeling device” in which a live onion plant is 3D scanned once every 24 hours, and then that scan is 3D printed. Amazingly, the 3D prints are then shuffled along a conveyor belt so you can see (and touch) the various stages of… Continue reading Capture That Onion!

The MetraSCAN 3D Scanner

Creaform just announced a brand new ultra-high-end handheld 3D scanner, the MetraSCAN. This totally amazing 2Kg device can scan 3D objects up to 10m in size to an astounding resolution of only 0.05mm, at a rate of 36,000 measurements per second!   One of the key advantages of this device is that it’s completely handheld,… Continue reading The MetraSCAN 3D Scanner

Sophisticated 3D Scanning Advances

Creaform, makers of the Handyscan line of 3D scanning devices recently released new software to drive their highly capable devices that increases their capability. While these scanners are typically out of the price range of hobbyists, they are very useful in a variety of commercial situations. The new software (VXElements) provides some pretty amazing capabilities,… Continue reading Sophisticated 3D Scanning Advances

Capture Your Body – Or Someone Else’s!

You’ve probably heard of hand-held 3D scanners before, but CreaForm produces units specifically designed for “body capture”. No, they’re not ensnaring people in nets, but rather they take a 3D digital picture in the form of a 3D model. (Actually any of these formats: .OBJ, .FBX, .DXF, .STL, .VRML, .LWO, .MAYA, .HRC, .3DS). The awkwardly… Continue reading Capture Your Body – Or Someone Else’s!

Creaform Gets Certified

Handheld 3D laser scanner manufacturer Creaform has just achieved an interesting milestone: they’ve been certified by the Chinese National Institute of Metrology after extensive testing at NIM’s Beijing facility. What? You’ve never heard of NIM? Here’s what they are about:    Founded in 1955, the National Institute of Metrology (NIM) is China’s national metrological institute… Continue reading Creaform Gets Certified

Scanning Submarines

When you’re capturing a 3D scan of an object, you are typically limited by the size of the scanner, if the scanner requires you to put the scanned object inside it. But there’s also hand-held scanners that can overcome even that limitation. But how big an object can you scan?    Creaform is going to… Continue reading Scanning Submarines

Laser Scanning Sale!

Laser Design has a special offer on for those requiring a full-scale commercial 3D scanner: 30% discount. This is a substantial amount, given the normal prices for such equipment.    The device in question is the Surveyor WS-Series system:   Surveyor WS-Series scans parts from all orientations, then easily rotates the data back into a… Continue reading Laser Scanning Sale!

DAVID-laserscanner … in a Box!

We wrote about the free DAVID scanner software quite a while ago, and while it was inexpensive, it was mostly software and lots of instructions for how to set up your scanning platform and buying the appropriate cameras and lasers. Now that’s changed – A1 Technologies, the folks behind the very inexpensive RapMan 3D printer,… Continue reading DAVID-laserscanner … in a Box!

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Creaform UNIversal Laser Scanner

  Creaform have just released a new entry-level version of their 3D hand scanner: the UNIScan. Their well-known hand-held scanner has been around a while, but this version is substantially less expensive (USD$28,900, approximately 30% less expensive than their current low price model, the REVScan) and provides good value.   Specifications: Weight: 980 grams (2.1… Continue reading Creaform UNIversal Laser Scanner

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The LEGO 3D Scanner

  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… Continue reading The LEGO 3D Scanner

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ZScanner

  ZCorp, the makers of that very popular line of 3D Printers, does more than just that – they also make 3D scanners. While the ZScanners are not exactly newly announced, we still think they’re worthy of discussion. It fascinates us how one could wander through the real world with a handheld device (and laptop… Continue reading ZScanner

360-3D Scanner

  At the recent CES in Las Vegas Real-View 3-D unveiled a new 3D scanner. According to a report on Wired’s Gadget Lab, the device is supposedly quite affordable. While information on Real-View’s website is rather scarce, the design of the scanner seems to be quite economical: Simple spinning platter to hold scanned objects Stereo… Continue reading 360-3D Scanner

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World’s First Consumer 3D Camera – And it Prints, Too!

Before you get too excited, it’s not what Fabbaloo readers might expect or want. Yes, the camera, pictured above, will indeed take 3D pictures as it clearly includes stereoscopic capability. And it (or an associated printer) will produce “3D Prints”. But they are actually 2D prints that merely look 3D, like holograms. According to the… Continue reading World’s First Consumer 3D Camera – And it Prints, Too!

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David Scans in 3D for Free!

Well, almost. The David 3D Laserscanner software can do some of the job using  equipment you probably have lying around your shop. You need a handheld laser, a calibration backdrop, a good webcam and the David-Laserscanner software running on a Windows PC. Yes, we did say “handheld laser”. The system requires your hand and arm… Continue reading David Scans in 3D for Free!

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Advances in 3D Imaging

New tech created by researchers from The Johns Hopkins University and Ben-Gurion University in Israel may greatly simplify 3D imaging of real objects. The FINCH technology (standing for Fresnel INcoherent Correlation Holography) uses a specialized arrangement of filters, lights and cameras to capture 3D information without having to scan individual planes of an object. While… Continue reading Advances in 3D Imaging

Capture That Design!

Yet another way to obtain a 3D design for your 3D printer: handheld 3D laser scanners! Creaform’s 2.1 pound Handyscan 3D laser scanner can capture a design from actual 3D objects. Features:   Accurate, fast and easy to use 3D digitizing scanner Plug-&-Play system Self-positioned without measurement arm Single connection through FireWire port High-definition camera… Continue reading Capture That Design!

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3D Scanner from NextEngine

We’ve discussed the idea of having large libraries of 3D models in the future, so that we can quickly print out any required object. But where exactly do these models come from? There are only two possibilities:   Design it yourself. Obviously difficult, especially if you don’t have specialized training and a whole lot of… Continue reading 3D Scanner from NextEngine