Structure Sensor 3D Scanner Works with New iPad Air and iPad Mini

For better or for worse, you can get a 3D printer from dozens of manufacturers these days, for as little as $200 (€145) or many, many times more if you want. But 3D scanners are a different story. The first relatively affordable model only came into market earlier this year.

But things are evolving fast and there's an obvious need for such devices. That explains the phenomenal success of the Structure Sensor 3D scanner for the iPad.

Occipital, the company behind the Structure Sensor, put the device on Kickstarter where it met its funding goal of $100,000 (€72,650) in just 3.5 hours. At this point, the campaign has raised over $1.1 million (€800,000) and has three more days to go. $349 (€254) will get you the Structure Sensor for the iPad or, alternatively, the "Hacker Kit," which makes it possible to use the scanner with any computer you want.

The Hacker Kit comes with open source drivers for the device and CAD models so you can adapt the scanner to any platform and device. You can get both kits for $379 (€275) if you hurry. The Kickstarter campaign only has until November 1 to go. What's unique about the Structure Sensor is that it doesn't look like any 3D scanner before it. That's not just an issue of aesthetics; the fact that you can mount the scanner to a portable device makes it possible to take it with you everywhere you go. You don't have to get an object in your workspace to scan it.

"With the Structure Sensor attached to your mobile device, you can walk around the world and instantly capture it in a digital form. This means you can capture 3D maps of indoor spaces and have every measurement in your pocket," Occipital explained on the KickStarter page. "You can instantly capture 3D models of objects and people for import into CAD and for 3D printing. You can play mind-blowing augmented reality games where the real world is your game world," it added. 

And, if you were worried that the scanner wouldn't work with the new iPads Apple just announced, the company has already adapted the device to the new design of the iPad Air and the new iPad Mini.

Source article: Softpedia 
More info at Kickstarter

Leopoly and Leap Motion are bringing sci-fi movie like virtual sculpting

Leopoly allows users to grab any 3D object in space and simply sculpt them on with their hands as they would do virtual pottery

We are proud to announce, that Leopoly and Leap Motion are full compatible now! Leopoly, the web-based, social 3D sculpting app introduces full Leap Motion compatibility. Leap Motion’s hand and finger motion sensor brings a revolutionary new approach to Leopoly in 3D design, requiring no input device, only our hands to contact and shape any object in space. Take a look for yourself!

What is Leap Motion?

The Leap Motion Controller senses your hands and fingers and follows their every move. It lets them move in all that wide-open space between you and your computer. So you can do almost anything without touching anything. It’s the tiny device that just might change the way you use technology. It’s the world’s most natural technology that just might change the world.

How to use it?

0. Move your to hands over Leap to activate and zoom in/out

1. Pick up a pen or any tool to use it as a pointing device to sculpt or paint

2. Use "c" to calibrate the tool (don't release till you have find the best position for you)

3. Use "g" while moving the pen over the Leap Motion for moving the object or selecting tools on the radial menu

4. Use "h" while moving the pen over the Leap Motion for sculpting or painting

What is Leopoly?

The idea behind the software is to give the easiest and most fun 3D sculpting tool and experience. This new way of virtual sculpting comes packed with new and exciting features like the concept of evolutionary modeling: all users can share creative designs and further shape ones pieces of art they liked.

If they fancy any object to put on their shelf, Leopoly is the easiest, most fun and most intuitive tool to prepare files for 3D printing. Designed objects can be printed directly through the software.

Enjoy it online and free!

Color your 3D world

The app’s latest added feature is real time coloring! Selected objects from the library can be taken to a whole new level by coloring it. The new colored object is exportable to all most any 3D program or even to games. This new feature is even compatible with color 3D printing! 

About Leonar3Do International

Leonar3Do International is a 3D tech startup company, founded in 2010 as a private company, founded in Budapest, Hungary. With its products now sold around the world, Leonar3Do has become a pioneer and award-winning provider of 3D solutions aimed at the educational, healthcare, gaming industry and general business market. For more information about Leonar3Do visit www.leopoly.com and www.Leonar3Do.com.

Could a simple webcam be enough for gesture control in VR?

Extreme Reality is on a pursuit to ‘motionise’ games but their technology has the potential to offer virtual reality gesture control and motion tracking without expensive hardware.

After a stint at Gamescom, Extreme Reality is now on the road to commercialising software that has been in their labs since 2005. The Israeli based software company aims to allow games developers to ‘motionise’ their games without the end user requiring any special hardware other than a webcam. Since September 30th, an SDK has been released which provides full body motion analysis via a webcam.

The company’s USP is being “the only company to provide full-body, software-based, motion analysis and control to any computing device or operating system via a standard camera.”

Talking to 3D Focus, Asaf Barzilay, VP Products and R&D, explains how it works:

“We have a platform agnostic solution that can be easily and widely deployed on a standard 2D webcam which only needs to be VGA and above.  Based on the RGB image we receive, our algorithm analyzes what the user is doing in xyz coordinates in every frame and this information is then used to create a live 3D virtual skeleton of the user in real time. It detects the joints, head, centre of mass, elbows, shoulders ribs etc at centimetre accuracy.  The xyz coordinates of each one of these joints can be very easily compared to the previous frames in order to get really quick and subtle calculations of what the user did.  From there we can take this technology into various different applications, not just games but we have also been looking at gait analysis, interactve experiences in museums, marketing, advergames, brand promotion and interaction of users in stores.”

Leap Motion may appear to be an obvious hardware competitor but Barzilay believes motion control with devices close enough to touch do not make sense…

“We have been focussing on the domain where the user is further away from the camera and cannot touch the devices, about 1.5 metres away or more (up to 5 metres according to website). We have been checking some interaction with smartphones where the user is very close to the phone or with laptops where the user is half a metre away but at the end of the day the user is still able to touch the device." 

So how does Extreme Motion compare in accuracy to the Microsoft Kinect?

“The end user experience is very similar to the kinect but without the hardware cost.” said Barzilay. “We see a person standing in front of the camera, moving freely, being detected and analysed.  Every centimetre of motion is detected. We have taken a few games titles initially built for the Kinect and managed to replace the physical system with our extreme motion software. The games play the same but they can now run of every PC and every iPad.”

One of the games Barzilay is referring to is ProRiders Extreme Edition by VTree Entertainment.  It has been converted from its original game format using traditional keyboard and mouse gameplay to full body motion control. The game uses a player’s body movements to drive the game play, riding a snowboard down snow covered mountains or doing their favorite tricks at mountain terrain parks, all while collecting coins and achievements.

“All of a sudden, instead of it being a very standard keyboard game it was a complete motion game.  We call it the purpose of motionising the game” said Barzilay.

Cick here for demo video

With virtual reality being very much the buzzword right now, it is not surprising that the company sees integration of Extreme Reality software having potential in a virtual environment. 

“Virtual reality still needs some user interaction. Imagine a webcam RGB image and in front of you are four buttons which the user can touch with his virtual hands – This is something we are already working on.” said Barzilay.

He also explained that the technology could be potentially used in the future for avatar creation.  So, in theory, as long as a user is facing a webcam, that information could be transmitted across the world to recreate an avatar in a virtual world seen by a user wearing a head mounted display. 

The company’s revenue model is planned to be two fold – a revenue share with app developers or, if a game is not chargeable to the end user (an advergame for example), the license would be incorporated into the production budget. 

Could a simple webcam be enough for gesture control in VR?

There are several games available with the most recent being the first iPad game – Go Dance by Sega.  Other games include (the incredibly difficult!) fitness/music game Beat Boxer, sports games ProRiders Snow Board and Top Smash plus the free game Pandamania.  A new racing game is expected to be launched soon.  

The company is currently running the Extreme iPad Challenge 2013 – a contest run for game developers to promote motion controlled games for iPad devices. The contest is open to game developers that wish to “motionize” their existing or new iPad games.  The submission deadline is November 15th with a top prize of $10,000 and free marketing on offer.

Visit http://www.xtr3d.com for more!
Source artice from 3dfocus