Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Creating and
Repairing 3D Scans
6
Use the Kinect, ReconstructMe, and 123D Catch to cap-
ture 3D models of real world objects—then clean them
up for 3D printing.
W
RITTEN
BY
A
NNA
K
AZIUNAS
F
RANCE
This is all experimental. There is no “way.”
— Bre Pettis
You no longer need an expensive high-end
3D scanner to create good-quality scans that
are suitable for 3D printing. There are now an
increasing a number of affordable ways to
digitize physical objects. Some of them re-
quire additional hardware with an RGB cam-
era and depth sensors, like a Microsoft Kinect
or an ASUS Xtion shown in
Figure 6-1
(see
“Kinect vs. Asus Xtion” on page 61
for a com-
parison), but you can also use your phone or
a digital camera to capture images. These
images can then be converted into 3D mod-
els, cleaned up using mesh repairing soft-
ware, and then printed.
Figure 6-1.
The Microsoft Kinect and ASUS Xtion
What Is 3D Scanning?
A 3D scanner collects data from the surface
of an object and creates a 3D representation
of it. The Kinect and Xtion both work by
beaming infrared light at an object, and
measuring how far away each reflected
point of light is. It then turns each individual
point into a collection of points called a
point
cloud
(
Figure 6-2
). Each point in the cloud is
represented with an
x
,
y
, and
z
coordinate.
This point cloud is processed (or
reconstruc-
ted
) using scanning software into a digitized
representation of the object known as a
mesh
(
Figure 6-3
). A mesh is similar to a point
cloud, but instead of only using single points
