Voxelization and the manipulation of files.

Voxels are powerful and important emerging tools in the visualization and 3d scanning industry. we've harnessed the power of the voxel to do comparative analysis on our separate scan views with outstanding results.

Check this wonderful site out that allows you to take your 3d model and convert it into voxel information and then download the result!

http://www.drububu.com/miscellaneous/voxelizer/index.html

improving your structured light scanning of aliens, monsters, fools and freaks

Creaform sent out this newsletter which had a wonderful article on improving your structured light scans. I couldn't particularly resist this one because it had an image of a man in alien prosthetic makeup being scanned... That is exactly the kind of thing we specialize in...

direct link: http://www.creaform3d.com/newsletters/december2010/index-en-full.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=december2010#truc-2

                                                                                                                                                              
TIPS & TRICKS - Creaform Body Digitizers

Improved Temporal Phase-Shifting, Moiré Technique

From a camera angle, a projected fringe pattern is deformed by surface relief. During 3D data acquisition, a number of video images are captured with a determined phase-shifting (displacement of the fringes). The depth measurement of a point on the object is calculated based on the variation of light intensity of each corresponding pixel

Impact of ambient lighting

To acquire optimal 3D data, it is essential that the fringe pattern projected on an object’s surface and captured on video camera show a good contrast. To reach good contrast level, the intensity of ambient lighting should not exceed that of the projected fringe pattern. We strongly recommend avoiding strong ambient lighting such as outdoor lighting, direct daylight from a window or any other strong light source.

Because a normal fluorescent light oscillates at local electricity frequency (50 or 60Hz) and to avoid the “flashy” effect of fluorescent lights it is recommended to avoid the use of florescent light as ambient lighting when recording images at 20 to 30 frames/s. On the other hand, very high frequency halogen, tungsten or fluorescent lights (a few kHz) can be used as ambient light sources. Plus, make sure that the ambient lighting remains unchanged during the capture sequence.

How to adjust fringe pattern intensity

To adjust fringe pattern intensity, launch the software PCS Setup and choose the Advanced – Camera Adjustment – Fringes option:

For example, the following images show different results of fringe pattern with adjusted intensities:

Good intensity level and good contrast	Under-exposed
Over-exposed	Low contrast due to strong ambient lighting