Short URL

3D Scanners

 

Other Research Instruments areas:

Loading, please wait...

3D scanners allow for a large number of measurements to be collected across the surface of an structure, landscape or object, resulting in a dense three-dimensional digital data file that accurately portrays surface features.The data collected are an accurate mapping of the surface which cannot be obtained as easily or as accurately by traditional surveying or other recording techniques. The resulting 3D model provides investigators with the means to study and analyze the scanned site, structure, or object. It further provides a “digital copy” of the subject that can be revisited as the site or object changes over time. The benefits of this virtual means of measurement go beyond its very significant presentation value by contributing to design of better sampling strategies, enhancement of scholarly analysis, and potential improvement of interpretation.

The Center has an exceptional inventory of high performance  scanners  There are five 3D  scanners: three are mid to long range - a Optech ILRIS, A Leica C10, and a a Z+F 5006i - and two are short range - a Breuckmann smartSCAN HE and a Minolta Vivid 9i.

Long-Mid Range Scanners

The  Optech and Leica scanners are  "time of flight" systems and the Z+F is a phase based system. The Optech has an exceptional range of 3 m to 800 m (and up to 1 km in selected situations) and it acquires data at some 2,000/second. The Leica C10 has an effective range of <1 m to 300 m and acquires data at 50,000 points/second.  It is particularly effective in integrating scan data with traditional survey data. The Z+F has an effective operating range of < 1 m to ca 50 m and can acquire some 500,000 points per second. The Leica and Z+F have powered heads allowing acquision of 360 degree (Horizontal) x 270-310 degree (vertical) data.  All three scanners have a published accuracy in the single millimeters.

Short-Close range Scanners

The Center has two close range scanners the Breuckmann smartScan HE and a Minolta-Konica Vivid 9i. The Breuckmann is a fringe projection based system. Its published specifications indicate that its feature accuracy us 9 micro-meters (0.009 mm or 0.00035 inch) . Minolta is a "triangulation light block" based system and its operating range is ca 0.5 m to 2.5 m and the nominal accuracy at 0.6 m is +/- 0.05mm (0.00016 inch). More information on these instruments and examples of their use is provided at the links to the left. The equipment acquisitions were made possible with support from NSF Grants 0321286 and 0918070 as well as funds form the Leica Geosystems Chair.

Software and processing

The acquisition and processing of these various instrument data presents many challenges. The Center utilizes a range of software solutions to address these challenges. Primary software applications used for processing these data are Cyclone (Leica), Opticat (Breuckmann), TrueView (Leica), XOF (Rapidform) and PolyWorks (Innovemetric). More details on these solutions, other software used by the Center's scanning teams, and how they are used can be found here.

Technical information on how the systems are used is provided here. Scan data developed by the Center's research efforts are made available to the public at the Center's Invirmet web site.