By Andrew Liszewski
The technique of scanning someone or something in order to produce an accurate 3D model has been around for a surprisingly long time, but only recently have these systems become compact enough to haul around in a suitcase. The faceSCAN series from Breuckmann were some of the first 3D scanners to be squeezed down small enough to be taken and used anywhere and their latest model could easily be thrown into a backpack were it not so delicate and expensive.
The faceSCAN III manages to improve over the previous models with a camera that can cover about 160 degrees in a single shot requiring only about 0.8 seconds to capture all the data on each pass. The resolution of the textures it captures has also been increased to 1.4 megapixels. (1384 x 1036) In addition the faceSCAN III’s custom software has also been improved with automatic functions for scaling or dithering the results and more options for exporting to common 3D formats.
As for cost? Well given the unit’s predecessor the faceSCAN II sold for about $40,000 this new considerably smaller and more capable version definitely won’t be any cheaper.
[ Breuckmann faceSCAN III ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]
Not that impressive… Genex, A4 Vision, or the Trusty Minolta Vivid series all do similar things. Frankly a 0.8 sec capture time is actually average to slow in the field, not fast.