April 15, 2014

Microsoft Research has announced it is working on research into 3D scanning for Windows phones, using what it calls Skynet UI (User Interface), which might soon enable people to turn physical objects into high-quality 3D models with the normal RGB camera on mobile devices and cloud processing.

Microsoft first unveiled the 3D scanner project back in October last year. The process is called 3D reconstruction and the Skynet UI is designed to make the whole process a lot easier for consumers to do. When successful it will allow users to print out a high quality image using a 3D printer. "The Skynet UI design aims to enhance user experience to lower the barriers between common consumers and 3D reconstruction", states Microsoft.

Zhiwei Li, Richard Cai, and Jiawei Gu are even sharing their work on the web. Using a Windows Phone handset, you could simply take a 360 degree photo of a face. The program on the camera gives you cues of when and where to move the camera around the face. The process is similar to how the panorama photograph ability functions and is described as simply "tap start, tap end interaction."

After scanning, you can move it around on the screen, and the file can be sent to a 3D printer to produce a 3D model of a person's face.

Microsoft notes the technolgy can be used to generate 3D models to support scenarios like AR furniture & space arrangement, e-commerce visualization, object recognition & search, etc. and then use these models in 3D printing.

Watch the demo video below to see the Skynet UI in action.

Posted in 3D Printing Applications

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O'Conner wrote at 4/19/2014 12:54:16 AM:Cyberdyne is fiction. Google is real. *cue iconic 50s sci-fi movie sound*Dan wrote at 4/19/2014 12:20:47 AM:What's the big deal? Doesn't 123D Catch already do this for iPad and iPhone?Toju wrote at 4/15/2014 6:42:07 PM:Skynet huh? Why doesn't Microsoft just change their name to Cyberdyne Systems and get this terminator apocalypse started already? Great idea, can't wait to try it out, name might need some work however...



