MakerBot mod turns PlayStation Eye into 3D scanner

by Griffin McElroy on Sep 3rd 2010 3:00AM

Do you feel the inexplicable compulsion to map the contours of your grotesque visage on a professional level? MakerBot Industries has come up with a clever device that should let you do so using a gaming peripheral you might already own: The PlayStation Eye.

The MakerScanner (which isn't available for purchase yet, though interested parties can put their names on a mailing list) is designed to let users create a full 3D geometric scan of an object using the PS Eye and a laser line pointer. This results in a data map that can be used to create 3D models or, with the right -- presumably expensive -- equipment, a physical statuette. We think it would be worth the investment to fill our apartment with busts of ourselves. "Oh, this one," we'd tell our visitors, "this one's us in repose."

Via: Kotaku
Source: MakerBot Industries

Tags: mod, mods, peripherals, playstation, playstation-eye, ps3, scanner

Reader Comments (21)

Do you feel the inexplicable compulsion to map the contours of your grotesque visage on a professional level? Your Penis?

@Spoof Meister

I give it thirty minutes after release for someone to make an elegantly rendered 3D model of their dick.

@Spoof Meister

Cold shower?

@Kurian

Well its gotta be less painful that sticking your erection in a hot tub of jelly-set mould :D

ok... that's neato!

well, that seems like a poor idea in my opinion. in the economic situation we ar in, some would expect some equipment that we can afford, not more stuff that would inevitably be useless later on.....then again, it's just my opinion

@S0l1D5nKe

This... this is for DESIGN. Design is something that is relative to a job. I don't think I read anything about it being for games. So I wouldn't call it useless. Especially if It will allow faster and efficient 3D modeling.

This seems useful.

Couple this with Reprap and you could replicate a whole boatload of things. For cheap, even.

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

Why PSeye? A regular webcam won't do?

@ybfelix I believe the gaming oriented cameras have some technology that regular web cams don't have. And since they Eye Toys are fairly cheap, compared to say the upcoming Kinect, it's a much more logical choice.

@ybfelix
Because it is widespread and readily available.
Its just a VGA camera, but its easy enough to find in shops so the mod uses it as its standard - you probably need to know exactly where the lens will be for this to work.

And to the guy above me, this mod is availiable now, you know what's not?
Kinect.

@BlackedOut
Widespread and readily available? Yeah, because it's an expensive hunk of garbage. Gaming webcams are no different than regular webcams. They're just proprietary hardware so they can charge you $60 for a webcam that only cost $20.

@ybfelix The ps eye is a very fast capture camera..

at 640 x 480 it runs at 60 fps or 60Hz at 320x240 it runs at 120fps or 120hz Its faster than most webcams out there thats why its used.

Sony released a very fast high rate capture cam to be the next gen eye, specifically so it could reduce / remove motion lag.

This same cam can also be used to homebrew your own multi touch surface PC do a google search for ps eye multitouch surface and you will see what I mean, some awesome stuff.

Again because its frequency is so high it makes it perfect for these sort of mods.

The kinect cam is some 4x slower in capturing than the eye in relation, it will always suffer from lag and be laggy in anything remotely fast paced, it just cant capture fast enough..

This reminds me of someone who had come up with a software technology which allowed you to create 3D models by using an inexpensive store-bought laser pointer of some type.

The whole process was quite clunky, required a two-walls of straight white behind you or the object, and seemed incomplete, but yeah.. always wondered the 3D hobbyist would ever be able to do this sort of stuff seriously.

Of course there's not really any indication how user-friendly and stable this MakerBot stuff is either