Karate Scanning

So, I tweeted the other day about my "ninja figurine" while I was at TechShop, and, first things first, I know; this isn't a ninja. I'll call him "karate-dude", I guess. Anyway:

I took a class at TechShop on Saturday, learning how to use the NextEngine 3D laser scanner. I'd taken a few objects with me to scan, after the class, but the machine was booked (by the instructor!) for several hours after the class, so I went back down there on Sunday to practice.

Scanning stuff is a not-fast, but not unbearably slow process that involves setting your project on a turntable for automated scanning, or mounting the scanner in a tripod and pointing it at bigger objects. The scanner paints vertical-lines across the object's surface with lasers, and takes pictures of them. By varying the lines over time, and comparing the same process done from another angle, it can determine the topology of the thing you're scanning. The XBox Kinnect does something similar, on a rougher scale, in real-time.

After several passes and angles, you end up with a "point cloud" that you can then clean up. After removing the platform the guy's sitting on, and the supporting rig, it looked like this:

After some smoothing and more work, I exported the model to a format that I can use in Google Sketchup, and brought it home (I left my USB stick at TechShop, and had to take an extra two busrides through the Mission to retrieve it. That'll teach me.)

The resultant 3D-polygon-karate-guy looks like this:

Some day, I'll have 3D printing capabilities, but until then, I can slice up the models, and cut out pieces on the laser cutters to build up parts, etc. Fun!