Research at the UNCC visionlab has produced an inexpensive 3D scanner that is portable, accurate and is capable of "wrapping" photographs over the 3D meshes produced by the scanner. The system is powered by a SICK LMS 200 LIDAR sensor that captures 3D (x,y,z) coordinates at a rate of up to 27k 3D points per second. Each measurement records the (x,y,z) position of surfaces within the line- o f-sight of the scanner. The 3D surface samples are integrated with photographs from a webcamera in real-time to create a 3D mesh of the scene in the vicinity of the scanner. The system is high ly configurable and allows the users to specify the region of interest for data capture that can range from a small surface patch (~1 sq. m.) to a 360-degree view of  all surfaces within 60m. of the scanning sensor. A dense 360-degree scan can take up to 2-3 minutes to capture and less dense scans covering smaller areas may be captured much faster. The SICK sensor provides measurements that average 2 cm. of error. Surface (x,y,z) measurements are integrated in real-time with images produced by a web camera that is also controlled by the scanning software. The scanner output is a sequence of Alias-Wavefront (Maya-compatible) OBJ files. Each output OBJ file includes a portion of the 3D scan and a image from the web camera that is overlaid onto the mesh using texture-mapping. The system was successfully used to capture data from Mayan architecture in the Puuc region of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico in May 2010.

===============

Technical Specs

===============

DataRate: up to 27k 3D points/sec

Vertical Field of view: Configurable from straight up (0 degrees) to almost straight down (150 degrees) -- occlusion occurs due to tripod mount.

Horizontal Field of view: Configurable up to 360 degrees

Accuracy: ~2 cm.

Weight: ~22 kg.

Output: OBJ format 3D files and JPG images (for texture mapping)