Luna Park opened in Brooklyn in 1903, during the heyday of Coney Island attractions. This weekend, artist Fred Kahl pays tribute to the park’s history with a 3D-printed model depicting it as it appeared 100 years ago. It’s being billed as the largest art installation ever created on a desktop 3D printer, and building it involved some fascinating, custom-made technology.
It’s not hard to find a badass-looking helmet
Three-dimensional scanners are one of the newest and most futuristic gadgets in a police investigator’s toolkit. These magical, handheld little devices can create 3D models of a crime scene in mere minutes. And the technology just keeps getting better.
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What if, the next time you played a video game, the main character not only looked like you but had the same body, same clothes, same everything? How would it change the way you related to the game? How would it change the way you relate to the other characters in it? I found out.
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Researchers at Scotland’s Abertay University are getting a brand new look at the seemingly nondescript world hidden in plain sight—the soil beneath our feet.
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Documenting a crime scene well is super important. Once it gets reopened to the public, there’s no going back. You can take all the pictures you want, and they might not cut it, but the Roswell Police have a new future-cop style trick: scanning the whole dang place.
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Artec, makers of high-end 3D scanners for industrial clients, have added a little whimsy to your day with Shapify.me, a service that can scan and print your body in full color, allowing you to make a little mini me of your very own.
The system uses the Kinect Sensor – it works with either the Kinect for Windows or Kinect for Xbox 360 – and allows you to scan your entire body using a PC or Mac. The software then lets you download the scan for 3D printing or order the print for $59. Prints are available in the US and Canada but more countries are coming soon.
Capturing the image is a little tricky – there are a lot of lighting issues and lots of turning – but the service seems to be outputting smooth, usable scans. Arguably these aren’t as beautiful as some other services we’ve seen including the incredible Twinkind but because you’re depending on a fairly low resolution system like the Kinect and limited processing power it’s easy to forgive some of the elisions in the model.
I’ve learned that 3D scanning is hard and anything that makes it easier is a good thing. While it might be a little late to give a Shapify figurine to your dear old mother and father, it’s definitely a fun little toy and could be an interesting tool for home hobbyists. Besides, who doesn’t want a 3D selfie?
I’ve always wondered exactly how modern concept cars are actually designed. In years past, artists went to work with clay and molded the shape of a car by hand. I assumed that most of this process was now done with computers. Apparently, a mix of the two is more accurate for modern concept cars like the Cadillac Elmiraj.
GM has announced that 3D scanning was a big part of the design process for the car. GM used a 3D scanning process that projected light patterns and used an advanced camera to capture 3D shapes and turn those shapes into mathematical data. That mathematical data was then used to create a 3D rendering.
Once those math-based models were achieved, the hand modeling in clay and computer milling took over. Changes made to the mathematical model for the concept were applied to the clay model using computer controlled milling. This process allows GM to move from a scale model to a full size model in about a week.
“With the Elmiraj, we were able to use 3-D scanning as the bridge between traditional hand-sculpting teams who work in clay and digital modeling design teams who work in math,” said Frank Saucedo, director of General Motors’ North Hollywood Advanced Design Studio. “Our ability to scan the clay model with speed and precision and go from the digital tools to the hands of a craftsman and vice versa was extremely valuable.”
If we’ve crossed paths in the past week, there’s a pretty good chance I’ve scanned you. This extends well beyond the human race, into the realms of animal, vegetable, plush toy and fruit bowl. Some subjects were too small to be scanned, some too fidgety and, in the case of my attempted 3D selfie, not nearly flexible enough. Such issues were mere roadblocks in my strange one-man journey to 3D-scan the world. I may have a problem. I admit it. For starters, I’m not completely sure what I plan on doing with all these scans, but while such questions are entirely logical, they’ve yet to curb my enthusiasm for the device. Sense is one of those propositions that seems too good to be true: a user-friendly, (relatively) portable 3D scanner capable of capturing objects up to 10 feet by 10 feet, and at a fraction of the price of the competition.
If the product is indeed what 3D Systems claims, it could fill a major hole in the consumer 3D-printing market. In recent years, 3D-printing companies have largely focused on the printers themselves, which have gotten cheaper and easier to use. At the same time, the race to dominate the category has often caused companies to ignore the question of how those without extensive CAD experience can create 3D files in the first place. MakerBot unveiled its solution back at SXSW: the $1,400 Digitizer, a rotating, desktop scanning bed capable of capturing objects up to eight inches by eight inches. 3D Systems’ Sense takes a wholly different approach: This is a $400 handheld scanner that can digitize an entire human being.%Gallery-slideshow123207%
Filed under: Peripherals
With over 137 million artifacts, works of art, and specimens in its collections, the Smithsonian can’t display even one percent of that at any given time. Many historically significant pieces won’t go on display in our lifetimes and other likely won’t ever see the light of day again. But their replicants will.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
