Institute for
Robotics and Process Control

3D Scanner Invention of the iRP Chosen as One of The Top7 'CeBIT Consumer Highlights'

Our 3D scanner 'DAVID-Laserscanner' is a good example that even a small research project of the university can lead to great success on the international market: Quit recently, at the beginning of this year, the 'DAVID Vision Systems GmbH' was founded as spin-off of the Institute for Robotics at the TU-Braunschweig. Two month later they already had their own booth at CeBIT - the world's largest computer expo - where the presented 3D scanning system was chosen as one of seven CeBIT Consumer Highlights. The German booth appears to be relative small compared to most big Chinese and Japanese Companies, but thanks to numerous interested visitors it competed with them like "DAVID against GOLIATH'. Thus it happens that the British Broadcasting Corporation became aware of it and broadcast an interview on British television for several times, see BBC News and BBC World News.

Rush of visitors in front of the booth
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Demonstration of the 3D scanner
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What is the secret of DAVIDs success?

Up to now 3D scanners cost thousands or tens of thousands of euro and were far from being affordable for private persons or small companies. To fill this gap, the iRP developed a system that allows everybody to do 3D scanning by using surprisingly simple standard components. A commercial webcam and a hand-held laser line were enough. Recently launched, the DAVID Vision Systems GmbH has now released a StarterKit that is introductory offered for just 400 EUR. In spite of this low price it enables the user to make 3d scans with a precision of less than 0.2mm.

Setup with line laser and webcam
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The basics for this 3d scanning device were developed more than two year ago. At that time the Institute of Robotics has published a scientific paper that describes the underlying principle of measurement. The article received the renowned Best Paper Award of the German Association of Pattern Recognition in the end of 2006. Due to the high demand for the software, the scientists improved their prototype and made a download available in the Internet. From then on a continuously growing online community actively supports the project with their own ideas and extensions. Thus, numerous of high quality 3D scans can be found in the user gallery and the user forum. The scalability of the setup is particularly mentionable: By building small and big scanning setups the community members were able to make 3d scans of coins as well as of sofas. The resulting 3D models can e.g. be printed with a 3D printer, or can be engrave in glass cubes, or can be analysed, or can be archived to all eternity.

There are many applications for 3d data, like archaeology, rapid prototyping, orthopedics, art and design, as well as computer animation and computer games. An example is the Museum of Natural History of Braunschweig, which are scanning bones of a newly discovered dinosaur species. After scanning, the bones were undeformed and printed in 3D in original size. By this way, multiple Museums can be equipped with printed dinosaurs.