Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: CNC and math-based artwork

Wally K wrote:

> Jon Elson wrote:
> >
> > I had another idea, not a mathematical surface, but to make busts of
> > my entire family. (And, if it actually worked out, maybe to sell a
> package
> > to do it, like the 'computer picture on a T-shirt' turnkey
> businesses
> > that were sold about 15 years ago. The tough part was getting
> people's
> > faces scanned into a 3-d point cloud. Laser beam scanners are
> obviously
> > out! Once you've got the 3-D data, then there is fairly low-cost
> > software that can turn that into a toolpath for a 3-axis (XZA) or
> > 4-axis (XYZA) mill.
> >
> > Jon
>
> Good idea Jon. Let us know if you come up with somthing.

I haven't yet. I did a bunch of research on it. I figured the easiest
way was to get 2 digital cameras (maybe 3) and mount them on
a frame that keeps them in position. The person sits in the
middle, with the 2 or 3 cameras around him, and simultaneous
pictures are taken from the several angles. Then, the photos are
read into the computer, and fed to software that uses parallax
and other cues to convert them into a 3-D surface. I sent email
to a couple companies that have such software for sale, and even
downloaded a demo of one. The problem is that the software
works well for buildings, but terribly for faces. One company has
a BEAUTIFUL 3-D head on their web page, but it turns out that a
digital image specialist spent 8 hours marking the corresponding
identical spot on about 7 images of the face, and then they fudged
the hair manually, to get the 3-D data. This is not practical.
Obviously, having a probe fell its way across your face won't work,
lasers would be dangerous, etc. I think there are some new
3-D scanning devices that use video cameras and a device that
'paints' the object with fine stripes of light. If one of these could
do an entire face in one minute, that is getting close to practical.
These things are still pretty expensive, but might come down
sometime.

Jon