3D Scanning

Researchers have developed a mind-blowing tool to not only create a digital twin of your childhood toys and other precious items, but also make them function like the real thing in mixed reality. It's the future of preserving the past.

If you can 3D-scan it, you can 3D-print it – and Matter and Form has announced a super-versatile new way to do so. The Three system creates photorealistic, high-detail, full-color 3D scans of objects from coins to cars, and potentially beyond.

If you haven't already noticed these incredible next-gen video effects, you'll soon be seeing them everywhere. Neural Radiance Field, (NeRF) technology, is advancing at the same breakneck pace as the rest of the AI world, with staggering results.

Researchers have developed an ultra-small, ultra-thin LiDAR device that splits a single laser beam into 10,000 points covering an unprecedented 180° field of view. It's capable of 3D depth-mapping an entire hemisphere of vision in a single shot.

We've already had plenty of announcements from the Google I/O 2021 developer event happening this week, but Google has also been showing off a 3D video conferencing app that it's working on called Project Starline.

​As we all know, finding a pair of shoes that fits isn't as simple as knowing your shoe size. Depending on the footwear, you might go half a size either way, or the shoes may simply not fit no matter what. A new 3D scanning system, however, is designed to take the guesswork out of the situation.

Indoor climbing walls don’t always capture the nuances of nature, so researchers developed a way to bring the outdoors in. Rather than recreate an entire rock formation, they made models of the key parts of the geometry and arranged them on an artificial wall to replicate the real thing.

How worn are your tires? Perhaps you check them by hand regularly, but if you don't, Nokian has developed an alternative. The Finnish tire manufacturer recently announced its SnapSkan service, which uses a 3D scanner to check users' tires as the car is on the road and in motion.​

The Microsoft Kinect may be facing some competition. The Motion Contrast 3D Scanning (MC3D) camera should also be economical, while offering higher-quality imaging and the ability to operate in sunlight.

When we first heard about the NavVis system a couple of years ago, it was being developed for indoor navigation. Now, the technology has been expanded to the point that it could give Google Street View a run for its money.

Swiss company Dacuda is tapping into the growing trend of food pictures on social networks with an app for iPhones that enables users to take 3D shots of food. Called 3DAround, it combines sophisticated software and the iPhone's gyroscope to produce holographic imagery.

The Zeus from AIO Robotics seeks to merge 3D scanning and printing with the push-button simplicity of today's consumer all-in-one printer/scanner/fax machines. In the process, the company also created the closest thing we've seen so far to the Star Trek replicator.