KEY POINTS:
Imagine you're an archaeologist at a dig in an inhospitable, remote location and you want a model of the site and any relics to work on back at the lab.
Or you're a forensics expert called on to help find the cause of death of someone lying inconveniently in a busy street.
Or you're a software developer working on a video game that you'd like to populate quickly with an enormous cast of characters and props, without having an art department to call upon.
Industrial Research (IRL) senior scientist Robert Valkenburg and his team are working on technology that could potentially help out archaeologists, detectives, the entertainment industry and others.
They're developing a handheld scanner that produces a 3D image in real time. The prototype, consisting of a $10,000 laser in a shoebox-sized unit, is connected to a trolley laden with the equivalent computer power of 10 PCs.
Once refined, the goal is to create a scanner that is truly portable - the trolley of electronics shrunk to a size that can attach to the operator's belt - and whose images are photo-realistic.
Then, all manner of commercial possibilities beckon.
Initially IRL, a Crown Research Institute, is offering paying customers use of the equipment at its Parnell site, advertising it as a "scene scanner". But Valkenburg doesn't rule out licensing the technology as another means of getting a return on the cost of its development.
The project began several years ago and has been funded by a Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) grant, made for the development of "a digital content creation system". The grant is helping pay the way for a five-strong research team.
Valkenburg says what they set out to do isn't unique, but their approach is. The challenge when making large 3D scans is that it's impossible to record all of the image in one pass of the scanner. That means coming up with a way of piecing together multiple scans in a precise way.
One approach is to fix the scanner to a rig that allows it to make multiple passes over the object being digitised, accurately recording the position of the scanner as it goes. The positional information is then used to stitch the scans into one image. The disadvantage of such a system is that it's not portable.
Valkenburg's team has come up with another way of recording the scanner's position. They distribute dozens of small LED beacons around the site or object being scanned. As the laser beam is passed over the target, six cameras attached to the scanner track where it is relative to the beacons.
The trolley of computer hardware and its custom-written software calculates the scanner's position by triangulation for each pass of the laser beam, drawing a 3D image of the scanned target in real time on a computer screen.
The aim is to build a system that is fast, mobile and capable of producing photo-realistic images, Valkenburg says.
The first ambition has been achieved. An image of a person's legs that can be viewed on screen from any angle took less than half a minute to scan, while a single two-second sweep of the laser over a shop mannequin produces a rough but readily recognisable 3D rendition.
Turning the prototype into the portable device Valkenburg envisages is a task the team will leave to outside specialists, as they turn their attention to tweaking the image quality. The main issue to overcome is consistency of lighting.
Once in production, the scanner might make its way into the hands of all kinds of users. Valkenburg sees it being deployed almost like a paintbrush, with its speed an important selling point. "Everyone's in a hurry for one reason or another," he says.
If road accident investigators could make a digital "painting" of the entire crash scene for later analysis, traffic could be flowing again sooner. Similarly, the interior of an aircraft that is costly to have sitting on the ground could be quickly scanned to enable a cabin refit.
It could also be used to make a 3D image of a heritage site, or of a museum exhibit, allowing valuable artefacts to be displayed in new ways.
Valkenburg will be gratified to see it go into production. "That will be proof of the value of the work we've done."
SCANNING IN 3D
How it works:
An operator uses a handheld device to scan an object, producing a digital image that can be stored and viewed from any angle.
Potential uses include:
Movie special effects, computer games, online retail, recording accident scenes, archaeology, computer-based training.in photo-realistic quality - all in real time
Anthony Doesburg is an Auckland technology journalist.
