3d laser scanning

So, have you ever looked at a trinket on your desk and said, "hey, that would be cool to have in Second Life?"

Well, with a little persistence, you can pretty much do it for free.  Assuming you already have a decent webcam, a laser pointer, and a wine glass, you're ready to roll.  The rest of this post is extremely unorganized, and I have no pictures to share (yet).

First, snatch the software.  You'll need Blender and DAVID-Laserscanner 3, both of which are free downloads.  DAVID will operate just fine in free mode in a resolution that is far superior to anything you'll be able to put into a sculptie.  Read the DAVID instructions carefully, but, truthfully, it's not hard at all.

I'm just getting past the proof-of-concept phase, so not much to report.  My first scans were with the guts of an old Black & Decker Bullseye, but I've graduated to this 532nm green laser I picked up off Amazon for about $8.  The wine stem method works great - just shine the pointer through a clean, thin glass or crystal wine stem to get a nice, thin lased line.

Depending on my success, I'm going to upgrade to a dedicated laser line generator, which I'll probably be grabbing from Aixiz.  If you're curious how lasers compare to each other, I found a neat tool here.