This page exists to show off my homebrew 3d laser line scanner.  Physical construction of the scanner in it's present form took about 1.5 weeks.  The software that drives the capture process was completed in about 4 hours.  The software that converts the still images into 3d data was completed in about 16 hours.  It is based on some ideas that have been percolating around in my head for a few months now.  Please excuse any speeling earors, after a marathon coding session, I'm too lazy to spelcheck at tihs point.  (As an afterthought I'd like to add that it took me nearly 4 hours to create a simple static web page :)

Here's a link to a commercial laser scanner costing just upwards of $20,000.
Please note: By linking to the above site, I am in no way comparing my hobbyist laser scanner to any of the fine commercial offerings available from the above mentioned site, which are probably way better than my paltry effort.  If you are the owner of the above site and wish the links to be removed, please contact me at moc.eticxeAT_sidrak (reversed for the spambots).

Click the thumbnails below for larger images.


Here it is, in all it's glory :) (57.6 KB sorry bout the file size, it gets better, though)


Another angle (34.2 KB)


Terracotta angel head and 3d point cloud (11.0 KB)


Porcelain angel head and 3d point cloud (22.7 KB)


Another shot of the angel statuette (18.0 KB)


Closeup of the Camera mount and camera (25.8 KB) (man I wish the cat would leave me alone right now...)


Closeup of the camera shutter switch attached to the printer and the stepper motor (26.8 KB)


Another shot of the motor and printer (20.0 KB)


Random picture of the cat (15.3 KB) (Now if only I can get him to sit on the turntable and be perfectly still for 28 minutes :0)


This page was created using entirely open source software.
Note to IE users: If this page dosen't render correctly in IE, I don't care :)

© J. S. Greenawalt and Ralph47 LLC. 2004