3D printing provocateur Todd Blatt may be the first person to 3D scan an object in a public place using Google Glass.
Walking around the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore Todd, simply chose an item, walked around it whilst muttering to himself/Glass and walked away with enough images to convert into a 3D model using 123D Catch.
“I just walked around the work, repeating, “ok glass, take a picture” over and over, 30 shots in total. No real care in aiming the shot. I just looked at it and that’s it. Then I manually uploaded the photos from Google Autobackup to 123D Catch on my computer and proceeded as normal…”
“Since the museum is free, I wandered in, and looked for a good piece to scan. I’ve scanned over a dozen in the museum so far, mostly at the Artbytes Hackathon, but I somehow missed Marcus Aurelius last time. It was literally a stroll-by scan job. I was in and out of the museum in under 10 minutes, and captured a few sculptures. I just walked around the work, repeating, “ok glass, take a picture” over and over, 30 shots in total. No real care in aiming the shot. I just looked at it and that’s it. Then I manually uploaded the photos from Google Autobackup to 123D Catch on my computer and proceeded as normal with the regular scanning/123d process.”
We already have this capability with our smart phones to create 3D scans but the concept of being able to walk into a room and surreptitiously 3D scan an object just by looking at it may send some galleries into a panic. Many cultural institutions are already engaging and encouraging people to 3D scan and mash-up their artifacts such as The MET with their 3D print hackathon and the Smithsonian working to 3D digitize some of their artifacts that will help to bring their collection out of the museums and into people’s lives. You can get your 3D print of Todd’s scan now via Shapeways.
The latest developer release of Windows 8.1 includes integrated 3D printing that will make it as easy to 3D print from a 3D modeling application as it is to 2D print a document from Word. Windows is the first operating system to integrate the
Wow , thank you Duann. Looking forward for more updates from you.
I found this informative and interesting blog, so I think so it’s very useful and knowledgeable about 3D scans. I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. As you said many cultural institutions are engaging and to encourage people to 3D scan but it’s never been easy task to do. You have beautifully described the art of 3D into a room. I am hoping the same most excellent and innovative work from you in the future as well.
“You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.”