

Makerbot’s New Device Makes Cloning Instantaneous - sitver
http://www.appstorechronicle.com/2013/09/makerbot-digitizer-scanner.html

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ChuckMcM
Anyone who uses "instantaneous" in the same paragraph with "3D printing" is
clueless :-).

That said, 3D digitizers look like fun. My thought is that one of these laser
pico projectors, a RasPi, a web cam, a computer controlled turntable and some
clever software, ok so that is like 5 things. Ah to have free time again.

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sitver
It's hyperbole. I use 3D printers frequently. The "instantaneous" was
referring to the digitizer, which takes 12 minutes to create the file. That,
compared to the hours it would take to create such a design in CAD program,
could be called instantaneous. Just as "rapid prototyping" can take hours,
depending upon the object. It's fast, compared to the alternative.

It's all about frame of reference.

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ChuckMcM
Fair enough, but when someone wants something printed on my Makerbot
Replicator, and they don't know these things. They thing "Star Trek" not, slow
grind :-).

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sitver
Now that would be a printer that sells well. Even the most expensive printers
still take FOREVER. One day. One day.

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doctoboggan
I wrote some software that could (mostly) do this scanning with a webcam.

[http://jack.minardi.org/software/whats-in-a-
shadow/](http://jack.minardi.org/software/whats-in-a-shadow/)

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hardwaresofton
Has anyone considered obtaining a leap motion and making a small rig that does
this same function? Given the accuracy of the leap motion, it seems like an
almost trivial feat

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throwaway1979
I've seen a human scale version of this done with the Kinect. An artist in NYC
was doing it quite a while ago and had a showing in 3Dward. I saw the
digitizer at Maker Faire this weekend and was impressed at the quality.

I'm guessing the res on this thing is better than that offered by rotating a
Kinect around an object. It certainly requires a lot less space!

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hardwaresofton
For something like that, I'd like to see someone put a bunch of leap
controllers/other stuff on a hula hoop, and make models that way.

