Entire model acquisition system using handheld 3D digitizer

In this paper, a real-time, handheld 3D model acquisition system consisting of a laser projector, a video camera and a turntable is described. The user projects a stripe of light at the 3D object by hand while rotating the object on a turntable. The projected light and LED markers attached to the laser projector and turntable are captured by the video camera. By estimating the 3D orientation of the laser projector and the turntable angle from the 2D locations of the markers, the 3D location of the surface lit by the laser can be calculated. In addition, post-processing algorithms for refining the estimated 3D data have been proposed. The algorithm not only improves the accuracy of the 3D measurement, but also achieves to decrease the number of LEDs for 3D data estimation; therefore, it significantly improves the user's convenience in scanning the object. With this system, users can measure an entire 3D object in real-time.