One of our projects is to make a low-cost 3D scanner using structured light. We were targeting the CIOE exhibition at Shenzhen in early September this year, and we managed to build up both in hardware and software a prototype system that successfully scans small objects and generates point cloud data.

Of course we still have a long way to go. For example we need to implement the rotation system of the scanned object so that we can get the point cloud data of the whole object instead of one face of it, and we need to do further point cloud processing to build up the surface mesh data. But the current results are already quite interesting and exciting and actually generated quite lot of attraction from the audience at CIOE exhibition. I’m showing some of our preliminary results here.

3D scanner has a bright future. We can imagine a world with Facebook using your 3D profile picture, with Flicker uploading and sharing 3D photos, with Taobao sellers showing 3D goods display, with Photoshop editing the 3D shape of your nose, with customized movies and games with yourself as the leading actor/actress. We can image big scale 3D scanner scanning your body or even the whole room, and small scale 3D scanner scanning your teeth for medical use, from dedicated 3D scanning studio to simple 3D scanning gadgets that work with your phone and iPad.