Sub-$1000 3D scanner on Kickstarter

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I’m having a really hard time wrapping my head around that price. Unless the cameras are super-high-quality or there’s some heavy-duty DSP doing on-device processing, I’m not seeing even $100 worth of hardware here.

Yeah, I know - development costs - software.

Really, I think the Ubuntu Edge Indiegogo spoiled me.

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Heck, the xbox kinect works just fine and is a lot cheaper plus it works with xbox games :slight_smile:

I keep seeing the future creep slowly into focus… When will i be able to scan my weird abstract wood carvings? What if they are 4 or 8 feet tall? When? Soon, I keep hoping.

Oh, hey! I met these guys back when they were doing the wound imaging. Very cool tech, and actually quite simple in principle. The devil’s in the details with these things. Glad to see they’re still about.

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If you can do what you want to do with a kinect, great. If you want any sort of decent resolution, that’s where this comes in.

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That’s not far off at all. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that the Fuel3D’s cameras have a fixed focal length, you could probably do exactly that.

You can DIY a 3D scanner yourself for about $50.

RE: XBox Kinect- AGREED. I’m not seeing a huge jump in quality with this device. Anything that is photo-textured will obviously look cool. I need something with high resolution geometry, and I don’t think this is turning out anything better that what I can already do for significantly less cash.

This is far too expensive for what it offers. Within a couple years, we’ll have 3D scanning ā€œwandsā€ that we can wave all around an object to get a full 3D model. You can already do this with a kinect - though it’s not all that elegant. Using the same technology with better cameras and sensors, plus some accelerometers for positional reference, should not be all that difficult. For a grand, that is the sort of functionality they should be providing right now. Limiting the device to still ā€œimagesā€ and requiring a calibration placard are inexcusable limitations at this price point.

By the time we see an iphone 8 or 9, expect that sort of thing to be built-in. In the not too distant future, expect vector-based video to be the norm.

Hi All,
Firstly many thanks for your interest in Fuel3D. It is true that the Kinect system can be used to produce a low-cost 3D imaging system. We have included a side-by-side comparison of output between our system and kinect on our kickstarter page and I invite you to have a look. You can also download samples of our data here:

http://www.fuel-3d.com/portfolio/

If you would like to compare with Kinect based scanning, you could look at output from the KScan software:

http://www.kscan3d.com/gallery/

Best,

James Paterson CTO Fuel-3D

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Thanks for all your comments, questions and support so far. For technical information, please see our new blog site: ttp://www.fuel-3d.com/blog/
Currently, it details the ā€˜Fuel3D and output resolution for 3D printing’. The blog will continue to be expanded upon so stay tuned for more updates: future blogs are soon to include stitching representations.

You can also check out our White Paper here: http://www.fuel-3d.com/product/technical-whitepaper/
Together with the Kickstarter video, this gives a good overview of what the Fuel3D is about, what it is capable of and also how it captures images for high-resolution surface detail.

Regards,

Charlie - Fuel3D

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