PFI:AIR - TT: Low Cost High Resolution 3D Scanning Technologies for 3D Printing

这个PFI:AIR技术翻译项目将利用先前NSF项目下开发的技术，针对蓬勃发展的消费者3D打印机市场创建先进的低成本3D扫描仪。市面上有许多低成本的桌面3D打印机，但只有少数低成本的桌面3D扫描仪进入了这个市场。不幸的是，由于其技术的内在限制，所有这些3D扫描仪产生的3D模型质量都很低。尽管现有的低成本3D商业（或家用）扫描仪的质量足以让业余爱好者使用当前一代的个人3D打印机复制小物体，但低成本桌面3D扫描仪的分辨率不足以用于艺术，娱乐，工业检查，逆向工程，医学，法医和许多其他更高级的应用。工业3D扫描仪，能够生产高分辨率的3D模型，在市场上是可用的，但是他们在一个或两个数量级更高的价格点，这使得他们不适合大批量消费3D打印机市场，甚至为上面列出的一些更先进的应用。在这个项目中开发的3D扫描仪将在成本上与现有的低成本桌面产品相比具有竞争力，但能够产生更高质量的3D模型，从而在最先进的技术基础上进行重大改进，从而具有竞争优势。该项目将把专有技术集成到一个精心设计的用户友好型系统中，通过智能自动化和先进的算法设计，该系统将消除最繁琐的步骤：投影摄像机校准技术将创建一个简单的用户友好的半自动校准过程，这对高质量重建至关重要；非同步结构化照明技术将使该项目能够利用为移动市场大批量生产的低成本硬件组件，并大大简化电路；多频移相技术将实现由光学挑战性材料制成的物体的3D扫描，例如抛光金属和其他各向异性和半透明材料；平滑符号距离和非凸船体表面重建技术将产生高保真的多分辨率多边形网格。该项目还将开发其他独特的图像和几何处理技术，以注册多个扫描，清理重建模型，并为3D打印模型做准备。该项目将与布朗大学创新管理和创业计划（PRIME）合作，分析一些其他应用领域的市场机会，并制定更广泛的营销和商业化战略。由先导计划学生组成的团队，将进一步了解已确定的市场空间、市场需求、竞争技术；竞争性创新的潜在影响；必要的知识产权保护，以及许可机会和自由经营问题。参与这项活动的学生将透过这些经验，加深对创新、科技商业化及创业的认识。

This PFI:AIR Technology Translation project will leverage technologies developed under prior NSF projects to create advanced low-cost 3D scanners targeted at the flourishing consumer 3D printer market. Many low-cost desktop 3D printers are commercially available, but only a handful of low-cost desktop 3D scanners have been introduced in this market. Unfortunately, all these 3D scanners produce low quality 3D models as a result of intrinsic limitations of their technologies. Although the quality of existing low-cost 3D commercial (or home made) scanners is sufficient for hobbyists to replicate small objects using the current generation of personal 3D printers, the resolution of the low-cost desktop 3D scanners is not adequate for applications in art, entertainment, industrial inspection, reverse engineering, medicine, forensics, and in many other more advanced applications. Industrial 3D scanners, capable of producing high resolution 3D models, are available in the market, however they are at a price point one or two orders of magnitude higher, which makes them unsuitable for the high volume consumer 3D printer market, or even for some of the more advanced applications listed above. The 3D scanners to be developed in this project will be competitive in cost with existing low-cost desktop products, but able to produce 3D models of much higher quality, resulting in significant improvements over the state-of-the-art, with resulting competitive advantages.The project will integrate proprietary technologies within a well designed user-friendly system, which will remove the most tedious steps through smart automation and advanced algorithm design: projector-camera calibration technology will enable the creation of a simple user-friendly semi-automatic calibration process, critical for high quality reconstruction; unsynchronized structured lighting technology will enable the project to leverage low cost hardware components manufactured in high volumes for the mobile market, and also to simplify the circuitry quite significantly; multi-frequency phase shifting technology will enable 3D scanning of objects made of optically challenging materials, such as polished metal and other anisotropic and translucent materials; smooth signed distance and non-convex hull surface reconstruction technologies will result in high fidelity multi-resolution polygon meshes. The project will also develop other unique image and geometry processing technologies to register multiple scans, to cleanup the reconstructed models, and to prepare the models for 3D printing.In partnership with the Brown Program in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (PRIME), the project will analyze the market opportunities in a number of additional application domains, and will develop a broader marketing and commercialization strategy. A team of PRIME students will work to acquire an enhanced understanding of the identified market space, the market need, the competitive technologies; the potential impact of the proposed competitive innovation; necessary intellectual property protection, and licensing opportunities and freedom to operate issues. The students participating in this effort will acquire an enhanced understanding of innovation, technology commercialization and entrepreneurship through these experiences.