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之前NSF项目下开发的技术来创建先进的低成本3D扫描仪，目标是蓬勃发展的消费类3D打印机市场。市面上有很多低成本的台式3D打印机，但在这个市场上推出的低成本台式3D扫描仪屈指可数。不幸的是，由于其技术的内在局限性，所有这些3D扫描仪产生的3D模型质量都很低。虽然现有的低成本商用(或自制)扫描仪的质量足以让爱好者使用当前一代的个人3D打印机复制小物体，但低成本台式3D扫描仪的分辨率不足以应用于艺术、娱乐、工业检查、逆向工程、医学、法医以及许多其他更高级的应用。市场上有能够产生高分辨率3D模型的工业3D扫描仪，但它们的价格要高出一两个数量级，这使得它们不适合大容量消费类3D打印机市场，甚至不适合上面列出的一些更高级的应用。该项目将开发的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，但能够产生质量更高的3D模型，从而大大改进最先进的技术，从而产生竞争优势。该项目将把专有技术整合到一个设计良好的用户友好的系统中，这将通过智能自动化和先进的算法设计消除最繁琐的步骤：投影仪-照相机校准技术将能够创建一个简单的、用户友好的半自动校准过程，这对高质量重建至关重要；非同步结构照明技术将使该项目能够利用为移动市场大量制造的低成本硬件组件，并显著简化电路；多频相移技术将能够对由光学挑战材料制成的物体进行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壳表面重建技术将产生高保真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，以注册多次扫描，清理重建的模型，并为3D打印准备模型。该项目将与布朗创新管理和创业计划(Prime)合作，分析其他一些应用领域的市场机会，并将制定更广泛的营销和商业化战略。一个由优质学生组成的团队将致力于加深对已确定的市场空间、市场需求、竞争技术、拟议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运营自由等问题的了解。参与这项工作的学生将通过这些经历加深对创新、技术商业化和创业的理解。

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.