Modeling the world
Until recently, most laser scanning systems—whether for use in films, games, or other applications–were pretty big pieces of gear, designed for capturing a car, or on a slightly smaller scale, a full body. While some companies did make small desktop rigs, these mainly captured small objects—say the size of a soda can—that had to be placed on a revolving stage attached to a workstation. Pretty complicated for the most part.
At the show, Quebec-base Creaform, which develops and makes the Handyscan 3D line-up of handheld and self-positioning laser scanners, debuted an innovative, lightweight handheld 3D color scanner that only needs to be attached to laptop to deliver near real-time scans.
Their VIUscan adds a nice twist, since it can simultaneously capture color, texture, and geometry. That means you could take it on location, capture some unique object, and within seconds have a 3D model that you could import into a variety of programs.
While it won’t be cheap—pricing just under $50K—the company is considering setting up a leasing program. Check out www.creaform3d.com for more.
