Turn Your iPad into a 3D Scanner

 3D Scanning  

The Structure Sensor is now available for pre-order from Occipital, the creator of the gadget.  The Structure clips onto your iPad and will be bundled with augmented reality and 3D scanning apps.

Startup Occipital has already raised over $1 million on Kickstarter, and now is in the pre-order phase for its Structure 3D sensor.

The Structure is small 3D sensor that clips onto the back of your iPad, and hooks into the Lighting Connector.  With the sensor users can scan objects for other applications or 3D printing, and for augmented reality applications.  With an independent battery, the device won't eat up your devices battery life either.

The company is now opening up its platform to developers, so no one really knows what future applications may make use of the scanner.

Richard Darell at Bit Rebels says, "It’s not always that you stumble over technology that you know is going to fundamentally change the way we do things. The Structure Sensor is not only a device that will capture real life objects and create them into virtualized 3D representation of them, it is way more than that."

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The Structure Sensor has been designed from the ground up to be mobile. Occipital put a lot of thought into making the Structure Sensor work perfectly with the iPad and other mobile devices. The goal was to make a device that enabled incredible 3D scanning applications, was easy to use, had great battery life, was compact, and looked like beautiful, precision hardware.

The Structure Sensor chassis is machined out of a single piece of aluminum that serves as both an aesthetic exterior and as a thermal core that keeps the precision optics inside at an optimal temperature.  It’s also anodized for an appealing finish.  At its top, the Structure Sensor has a chemically hardened glass surface that optimizes the depth image quality, while also protecting the infrared emitter and camera inside.

Out of the box the Structure will come with the following functions:

1. Room Capture: Easily capture a 3D model of a room by simply spinning around with your Structure Sensor and iPad. Then, tap any two points to retrieve distances. 

2. Fetch: A virtual pet to play fetch with in the physical world around you. 

3. Ball Physics: An augmented reality demo where virtual balls interact with the dense geometry of the world. 

4. Object Scanner:  Capture models of objects and export them to CAD software or for 3D printing.  You can also upload models directly to Shapeways.com for 3D printing.

Length x Width x Height	119.2mm x 27.9mm x 29mm
Weight	99.2 grams
Minimum Distance	40 centimeters
Maximum Distance	3.5+ meters
Precision	1% of measured distance (typical)
Resolution	VGA (640 x 480) / QVGA (320x240)
Framerate	30 / 60 frames per second
Battery Life	3-4 hours of active sensing, 1000+ hours of standby
Illumination	Infrared structured light projector, Uniform infrared LEDs
Field of View	Horizontal: 58 degrees, Vertical: 45 degrees

The Structure Sensor is now available for pre-order here. The price is only $349 - much less than other 3D scanners.

By 33rd Square

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