MakerBot (twitter), the 3D printing innovator, today announced a prototype 3D Scanner (twitter) at SXSW. CEO Bre Pettis announced first MakerBot 3D printer four years ago while at SXSW in Austin.
The MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner adds to MakerBot’s 3D Ecosystem that includes MakerBot Replicator 3D Printers, Thingiverse.com, MakerWare, and MakerCare.
The 3D Scanner shown at SXSW is a prototype model and MakerBot will spend time testing, scanning, and printing in 3D the items scanned with it.
“It’s a natural progression for us to create a product that makes 3D printing even easier,” said Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot. “With the MakerBot Digitizer, now everyone will be able to scan a physical item, digitize it, and print it in 3D – with little or no design experience.” Bre co-founded a popular speaking series with Brady Forrest called “Ignite.”
A 3D scanner collects 3D shape data that can then be used to construct digital, three dimensional models (for printing). They usually create a point cloud of geometric samples. Point clouds can be acquired from hardware sensors such as stereo cameras, 3D scanners, or time-of-flight cameras, or generated from a computer program synthetically.
