Camera + Turntable + Laser = 360° Scanner

Arduino Craft & Design Photography & Video

In addition to being an online editor for MAKE Magazine, Michael Colombo works in fabrication, electronics, sound design, music production and performance (Yes. All that.) In the past he has also been a childrens' educator and entertainer, and holds a Masters degree from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program.

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September 20th, 2011 4

Sebastian Korczak hacked together a 360° rotating 3D scanner using little more than a record turntable modified with Arduino, digital camera, and a laser pointer. Korczak’s laser was mated with a special lens to create a linear beam. The distortion of this beam as it scanned the room coupled with the video data is put into a Python script, which outputs a point cloud of whatever is scanned. In this manner he is able to get full real-time scans of entire rooms. Fortunately for us, he’s provided extensive documentation on his homepage.

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4 thoughts on “Camera + Turntable + Laser = 360° Scanner”

Brian Lackey says:

September 20th, 2011 at 7:37 pm

Instead of relying on the constant rotation speed of the turntable, why not use a rotary encoder with significant precision for the object(s) you’re scanning?

Reply
Brian Lackey says:

September 20th, 2011 at 7:37 pm

Instead of relying on the constant rotation speed of the turntable, why not use a rotary encoder with significant precision for the object(s) you’re scanning?

Reply