I'm a big fan of 3D scanning and keep trying new scanners as they come out. The Einscan seems to still be in the vaporware stage, although it looks interesting. If it does materialize and can achieve the quoted specs, it might be worth checking out. How did Hughes get one - was he a beta tester?

I tried the Fuel 3D, but wasn't impressed. While it does have good resolution, in my tests it was wildly inaccurate in capturing depth.

The Sense is a good scanner for the price, although its lack of resolution means that it's only useful for fairly large objects like full-sized humans. But I'm working on a fix for that.

I've seen the Artec scanners demonstrated, and they are impressive, especially the new Spider, but as was mentioned they're in a whole different price category from the others.

The David SLS2 is a nice system; not cheap but capable of capturing objects with good resolution and accuracy. The main problem I've had with it is getting the individual scans integrated into a solid object - it only captures images from one perspective and won't continue, so many of them have to be aligned and consolidated, which is difficult. Also, the combined scans aren't as sharp as the original component scans.

I think the time is ripe for a big burst of enthusiasm for 3D scanning, much like the one we've just experienced for 3D printing. The two processes go hand in hand, and it will just take someone coming out with the right device - at the right price - for a lot more people to start getting into it.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com