Imagine using your smartphone as a 3D scanner.
Well, stop imagining. A new Microsoft Research app called MobileFusion creates instant 3D scans with a smartphone about as quickly and easily as someone can text-message, make a phone call or snap a mobile photo. The app doesn't even require any extra hardware nor an Internet connection. The results are images detailed enough for a 3D printer, use in a video games or for instant shareable content on social media.
"What this system effectively allows us to do is to take something similar to a picture, but it's a full 3D object," Peter Ondruska, a Ph.D. candidate at Oxford University who worked on the project, told Technet.
Added Pushmeet Kohli, a principal research scientist with Microsoft Research: "Everything happens on the phone itself."
The way it works is simple. Open the app and point and shoot using a standard smartphone camera, as if you're taking a picture. The MobileFusion system densely tracks the device in 3D by comparing the live camera data with the previous frames. It will then take the current live frame and perform efficient stereo matching to generate a depth map. The stereo depth maps are then merged into a single 3-D mesh model. The 3D model is instantaneously captured on the user's cell phone, with the system refining it as it's being built, all in a matter of seconds.
Microsoft Research principal researcher Shahram Izadi told Technet the MobileFusion app could be used for 3D printer-ready use as well as to enhance a simple vacation shot, specifically citing the Eiffel Tower as something that can be captured and immediately shared with friends or family in 3D.
