While 3D printers are advancing in print resolution, we can’t say the same for 3D scanner. Now, if you must be asking: what’s wrong with today’s 3D scanners? Well, nothing, really – if you are just scanning a cup or an apple. But if you are looking into scanning objects as complex as the sculpture of Bodhisattva Manjushri (see below for the scan), then it will take more than just two axes and a rotating platform to do the job, and it surely takes more than just laser to map out all the intricate details. This is where the D3D-s Desktop 3D Scanner aims to fill the gap and it wants to do it affordably. About that… affordability is quite subjective, but more on that later.
Anyways, a couple of geeky Ukraine dudes: one engineer with this thing for metalworking and the other, the developer of Start Menu X, came up with the D3D-s which they claim to deliver “unbelievable accuracy.” To achieve incredible accuracy, D3D-s goes beyond conventional laser scanning in two axes and turntable design; it has three axes, a rotating table, plus a tilting camera and a light beam for triangulation. All told, D3D-s has 5 degrees of freedom of movement, thus allowing it to access virtually any part of the object.
Unlike lasers, light beam provides uniform illumination and ensuring sharp edges with no speckles when picked up by its 5MP camera with high-quality, industrial-grade 40mm lens. LED illumination on the camera further enhances the object and eliminates annoying shadow cast that would impede a quality scan. D3D-s is capable of depth accuracy of 0.050 mm, 0.010 mm vertical accuracy and 0.005 mm horizontal accuracy. The accuracy promised, plus the 5 degrees of freedom does make the D3D-s the “most accurate 3D scanner” when compared with current high-end 3D scanners.
Obviously, this thing is not going to be cheap by consumer’s standards. It is, however, competitively priced when stacked against its competitions. And how much are we talking about? Oh, not much. Just 2,555-3,200 Canadian money (around US$2,015-2,524). But that’s only if you back the product on Kickstarter and if you did (the pledge), you will have to keep your fingers crossed that it gets funded. The campaign has 17 days to go and it is still 10K short.
All images courtesy of D3D-s Lab.
Submitted via TIP US Page.
