Young Engineer Uses Webcam, Laser to Build Budget 3-D Scanner | Hacker News Reader

Young Engineer Uses Webcam, Laser to Build Budget 3-D Scanner

wired.com

28 pointsharshpotatoes11 comments

Everybody uses this free software, http://www.david-laserscanner.com/

Oh wow, that's been around for a while, hasn't it? Dang, I was mislead by the wired article at how new this sort of software was. Still, it is pretty neat at how low cast 3d scanning is, and how easy it would be to hook this up to a 3d printer of some sort.

The maths is pretty simple - most of the new stuff is making the editing of the resulting model easier.

Where do I find the plans for this, and the software? I'd love to try to build one.

His webpage says the "MakerScanner" is an open source project but it doesn't provide any plans or code. Grr that really grinds my gears when something is called open source but it isn't.

I can't even find any contact info online to ask him.

It has a box to put in your email to be contacted when the first version is released.

So he's not going to release the source until the first version is done?

The benefit of open source is that others can help with the coding and getting to the first release.

I guess I'll try the email thing.

Some projects (see zedshaw's Mongrel 2, for example, or Diaspora) prefer to have an architecture put in place by an exclusive group, and then use open source to iterate.

Sometimes, too many cooks spoil the broth.

That's fine, of course, but then it's not open source until you release the source. I agree with the OP that it's misleading if labeled otherwise.

I have been following Make Magazine since issue #1, though I believe the site has been around longer than that.

You can get the full plans for the 3D MakerBot here: http://wiki.makerbot.com/open-source-ftw

As far as I know, near everything I have ever seen in Make Magazine, MakeTV, and Make www, is OSS, or based on it. There are weekend projects that amount to broom handles and fishing line, which are more a matter of just putting together what you see in a video; nonetheless, Make usually offers plans for those as well.

MakerScanner, that does look like it is in the works to go OSS, and he is putting the finishing touches on getting it all released. In the meantime, I believe you could use http://www.david-laserscanner.com/ which may be even more mature, if not the base for which MakerScanner was made upon.

I did look and try to find and email address for Andy Barry, or his blog or twitter account, and came up short. Sorry about that. Though making the MakerBot prototyping machine should keep you busy for a few weekend. Maybe once you make one, you could have it make several more for you :)

I thought this idea had been around forever? I've seen it implemented with turntables before, which adds a nice touch.

Edit: It's been done with legos: http://philohome.com/scan3d/scan3d.htm

Also, check out the MilkScanner, very cool! http://gizmodo.com/266169/lego-milk-scanner

I know that this has been patented, but the patent may have expired by now. We were looking to do this in 2001, and gave up due to the patent.

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