Silhouette based 3D scanning: Overview

The generation of 3d models is an important step for many 3d applications. Modeling some objects requires a great deal of energy. An alternative is scanning. 3D scanner exist in many different versions. Commonly used are scanner that use a laser ore structured light to sample the object surface. Sometimes even mechanical sampling is used.

A simple silhouette based approach is implemented here. The animation shows how it works: the object outline of several photos is used to 'punch' it out of a solid box. However only the convex hull can be reconstructed but with some objects it works quite well.

Unfortunately 3d scanning is exepensive in general but the software that was developped here is freeware (only a windows version exists by now). There is also a construction manual for the simple hardware. The requirement for your own scans is a digital camera.