How to Build a Human-Size 3D Scanner on a £1,000 Budget

Cameron Coward
Aug 24, 2017 · 2 min read

We see lots of different kinds of 3D scanners, and their designs usually reflect the size of the objects being scanned, as well as the detail required in the resulting model. Small objects, for example, can be scanned with a single camera as the object is rotated on a platter. But large objects, like a person, take quite a bit more work.

To use the scanner, a person must stand or sit in the center of the frame.

Poppy Mosbacher, who is director of the Build Brighton Makerspace, wanted a 3D scanner that was big enough to fully scan a human. Her goal was to be able to scan a dressmaker’s dummy (made to her exact size), so that she could test 3D models of clothes in VR before actually making them. Her Makerspace didn’t have a surplus in the budget for the entire build, but luckily she won a £1,000 grant as a University of Brighton Digital Award.

The project, as defined in her design brief, was the come up with a 3D scanner that could scan a person for less than £1,000. While the prototypes, as a whole, ended up costing more than that, the final design can be built within that budget. To accomplish this, she (and other members of the Makerspace) created an array of 27 Raspberry Pi Zero boards, each with their own Pi Camera Modules.

3D models need to be cleaned up to remove unwanted pieces.

The Pis were mounted on a framework made up of cardboard tubes and 3D-printed joints. They were then connected through a router to a central server running Node.js. At the push of a button, all of the cameras simultaneously take a photo, and the photos are dumped into a folder. AutoDesk Remake (which is free for students) then takes the images and stitches them together to form a 3D model. A bit of post-processing is required to clean up the model, but eventually the final product is a 3D model of the scanned person!

[h/t: Raspberry Pi]

Hackster Blog

Hackster.io, an Avnet community, is the world’s largest network for hardware & software developers. With 1 million members and 17,000+ projects, beginners and professionals can learn and share how to build robotics, industrial automation systems, AI-powered machines, and more.

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Cameron Coward

Written by

Author, writer, maker, and a former mechanical designer. www.cameroncoward.com @cameron_coward

Hackster Blog

Hackster.io, an Avnet community, is the world’s largest network for hardware & software developers. With 1 million members and 17,000+ projects, beginners and professionals can learn and share how to build robotics, industrial automation systems, AI-powered machines, and more.

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