Carnegie Mellon and CalTech Researchers Develop New 3D Measurement Tool
Simon Lucey, associate research professor at the Robotics Institute, tells Carnegie Mellon News, “these ‘noisy’ IMUs are good enough that, when the user waves the camera around a bit, they can calibrate 3D models as they are created and enable the phone to get accurate measurements from the models.”
With future improvements, the technology has the potential to be of common use for online shoppers buying products and goods that typically require measurements, such as furniture and eyewear.
“‘The amazing thing is that we can turn any smartphone into a ruler — no special hardware, no depth sensors, just your regular smart device,’” Lucey says of the new measurement technology.
In related research, a team at Caltech has developed a tiny high-resolution 3D imager that could potentially be used by smartphones to enable users to take a photograph, send it to a 3D printer, and quickly and easily create a replica that is accurate to within microns of the object.
“The new chip utilizes an established detection and ranging technology called LIDAR, in which a target object is illuminated with scanning laser beams,” reports Caltech. “The light that reflects off of the object is then analyzed based on the wavelength of the laser light used, and the LIDAR can gather information about the object’s size and its distance from the laser to create an image of its surroundings.”
See the full story here http://www.etcentric.org/carnegie-mellon-researchers-develop-new-3d-measurement-tool/