The RealView 3D company has announced a new desktop 3D scanner that will be unveiled at the recently opened CES 2009. It's great to see more competition in this market. Hopefully the prices of these systems will begin to come down! NextEngine seems to have the most popular 'low cost' version which still comes in at $2995 for the bare-bones package. Though we don't have one in house, I have seen demos of the NextEngine system and the quality is very good for the price. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any price or quality info currently available for the RealView scanner. It will be interesting to compare the too once more details are released. A recent Wired article is already predicting a loss for RealView...
In the meantime, why not try out a do-it-yourself solution! The DAVID scanner requires only a handheld laser ( < $30 USD), a webcam (< $50 USD), and a license for the DAVID-laserscanner software (trial version - FREE, pro version, ~$275 USD). There are some demos and production videos on the site that are definitely worth checking out. Pretty amazing for the investment! If this sort of project is up your alley, why not add on a DIY 3D printer for a full-blown homemade prduction pipeline!
Though all this solutions will inevitably require some patching and smoothing by a 3D artist for production quality models, the increasing availability and accessibility of these machines will no doubt decrease the workload for developers and allow us to produce high-quality content faster and more cost-effectively.
N Formation Design, LLC specializes in creating custom, 3D interactive media for a variety of clients. This blog is a place for us to think out loud about our business and to research topics related to our work.
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