The need for true-to-life digital objects is accelerating as visual effects studios outbid themselves into bankruptcy, game studios build increasingly realistic AAA titles, and the art world begins to digitally preserve priceless artifacts for future generations. A 3D scanner can generate digital models of real world objects quickly and easily, and that's where Creaform's Go!SCAN 3D finds its niche.
Creaform – a company based in Québec, Canada with offices in the US, France, Germany, China, Japan, and India – claims that the Go!SCAN 3D scanner is 10 times faster than its competitors. The scanner itself, which looks a bit like a cordless electric drill that you hold in your hand, contains cameras ringed by white LEDs. Anyone, regardless of experience, can use it by pulling the trigger and sweeping it over the surface of an object.
The scanner shoots patterns of light onto an object's surface that are captured with its cameras (creating images that Creaform compares to the coded patterns in QR codes). These images, which can sample an area about half the size of a movie poster, are then parsed by Creaform's software, generating 3D geometry accurate up to 0.1 mm (100 microns).
Priced at US$25,000, the Go!SCAN 3D scanner isn't cheap (individuals may want to check out more affordable desktop scanners like the Photon, Digitizer, or CADScan3D). However, it is within striking distance of many companies that could benefit from the technology.
That said, it would be pretty cool to have one of these things around the house, particularly for those with access to a 3D printer.
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