Did you ever take a very close look at your fingers? They are incredibly complex machines, with not only shape and texture, but also motion. Imagine if fate caused the loss of one or more of them?

There are solutions today, such as those produced by Didrick Medical, who make a kind of finger-harness that fits over the hand and implements an "active-function artificial finger prostheses". The design permits a variety of finger loss scenarios to be resolved. This is their "X-Finger" product.

But the problem is in the build. Turns out that everyone's hands and fingers are pretty much unique. Who knew?

Didrick Medical's approach is to custom design each and every X-Finger to perfectly match the recipient. However, as you might suspect, the measurements are very complex, tedious and time consuming.

Enter 3D Laser Scanning from GKS Global Services, who used their equipment and software to gather the necessary 3D modelling data much more quickly than had been done manually. The scanning is done from a cast of the hand, presumably to avoid "twitches".

Once the 3D model is successfully captured and tweaked, SolidWorks takes over and the production process continues as normal. And the fingerless get new fingers.

Via LaserDesign

According to their paper:

ProFORMA uses a fixed video camera to allow on-line reconstruction of objects held in a user's hand. Partial models are generated very quickly and displayed instantly, allowing the user to plan how to manipulate the object's pose in order to generate additional views for reconstruction. We demonstrate how augmented reality can be used to assist the user in view planning, guiding the user to collect new keyframes from desirable views in order to complete and refine the model.

We'd like this rapid scan technique to eventually become a standard feature for home computers, as that would massively simplify some of the difficulties in consumer use of 3D systems.

Via Cambridge University Engineering Department and PhysOrg (Hat tip to Micah)

There's a relatively straightforward approach for making an inexpensive 3D scanner using stuff you probably are sitting beside right now, and several websites detail methods of doing so, some even including software you can use yourself.

The approach is described by Jean-Yves Bouguet and Pietro Perona of the California Institute of Technology, who propose "shadow scanning". In this approach, a shadow is repeatedly imaged at an extreme angle as it slowly passes over a 3D object. Software interprets the shadow position differences and derives the 3D model. The diagram above explains it a lot better.

Via CalTech and the University of Washington (Hat Tip to Massimo Menichinelli)

3DScanCo, makers of what else, but 3D Scanners, published an interesting case study involving their scanning products. They were approached by Priceless Past, who wished to obtain a highly detailed digital capture of a priceless bronze dagger from ancient China:

Priceless Past entrusted 3DScanCo to perform non-contact 3D laser scanning on the dagger at 3DScanCo’s engineering service center. 3DScanCo used the Konica Minolta VIVID 9i to perform high resolution 3D laser scans of the dagger, capturing the extremely fine markings and details. The VIVID 9i was ideal due to its ability to scan at very high detail without the use of probes; a completely non-contact scanning process. The raw scan data was imported into Rapidform XOS software to register and merge the dagger into a .STL polymesh file format which can be used for rapid prototyping and visualization.

Being history buffs here, we immediately jumped over to the Priceless Past site and found the aforementioned dagger here. Unfortunately, it says "This one didn't last long!" and we put away our Paypal account number. But that got us thinking.

Rare collectibles such as the bronze dagger are of great interest to many, but their rarity causes the price of an item like that to be well beyond many budgets. This means that many collectors, schools and museums can only examine images and imagine what the artifact is really like.

But what if detailed 3D models were captured for many ancient artifacts and offered as choices from a 3D print service's library? Third parties could add to the experience by providing detailed paintovers to match the original. Today's print services mostly offer pre-made or end-user submitted designs, but we think this might be an interesting addition to any 3D print service.

Via 3DScanCo and Priceless Past

Scientists from the Stony Brook University Medical Center recently used 3D technology to reconstruct the skull of an extinct mammal. The Hadropithecus stenognathus is a species of giant lemur now extinct, with only two examples of skulls known to exist.

The examples were in fact merely pieces of skulls. However, researchers noticed that at least some of the pieces fit together well, and concluded they may be able to use 3D scanning tech to help. The pieces were scanned and then "virtually reconstructed" by determining how the pieces fit together. The result was a 3D model of the complete skull that is suitable for further research.

What is not stated is the obvious, at least to us 3D fans: why not print the model as an object? Such virtual reconstructions could be of value as they may be transmitted to multiple researchers who can either work virtually or physically by printing the model.

Via NewsWise and EurekAlert

Band Radiohead has produced a video that makes extreme use of 3D modeling and scanning tools. The video "House of Cards" is entirely made from 3D scans and models of live actors and actual neighborhoods. Of course, once captured electronically, the actors and neighborhoods can be blown up! Actually the models fragment and blow away in a very beautiful manner, but in any case this is a truly unique use of 3D technology.

Via YouTube and also YouTube (making of video)