Photometric Capture This is kind of the leading edge of the tech - i.e.

3D Printing
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Photometric Capture

This is kind of the leading edge of the tech - i.e. this is research level work posted yesterday; where we can expect 123dcatch and my3dscanner to get to eventually.

I was quite impressed by the quality of the capture on these, particularly the details of the minute wrinkles at the join edge on the Buddha’s back. The capture of the reflectance data is more relevant to the 3D Modeling group than the 3d Printing side, obviously, but the level of detail on the 3d models looks excellent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlc8hN1hvm4&feature=share

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I think the main thing to gain from this is the varying light you see in the input images. Most photometric like 123D catch rely on single light source multi-camera placement, which makes sense if you’re trying to capture outdoor or large objects. Many of us tried to use Autodesk123D with a turntable and a steady camera which totally messed up the algorithm but absolutely points to the way people “intuitively” determine the best way to shoot all angles of an object for reproduction.
I think if Autodesk could take advantage of this varying light condition for better depth (variation in shadow and reflectance normals), we could have amazing reproducible results.