Canadian startup Kiri Innovation has launched a crowdfunding campaign for Phiz, a gadget which turns your smartphone or laptop into a desktop 3D laser scanner.
The phone tower is equipped with a laser system. It is designed extendable, so it could allow to adapt scanners to smartphones regardless of their size or camera positions. To use it with laptops, it has provided an attachment for the bezel.
The system is able to generate a polygon mesh consisting of two million points with coloured textures. The scanning is occurred on a turntable, which is equipped with harmonic drive in 1:30 gearing reduction ratio and 0.18 degrees per step. With each step, Phiz grabs 1000 points. There are 2000 steps during each 3D scan and 2 million points as a result. The scanning speed is nearly 4 minutes and the scanning volume is 400х400х400mm.
Files could be output in STL, STP, and OBJ formats. The models could be used in VR and AR or could be “sliced” for 3D printing. As developers said, Phiz generates not just point cloud file, but watertight meshes of the point cloud, because it was originally designed for working with 3D printers. In addition, the system has a learning algorithm and regression analysis for quality improvement. The designers will launch KIRI Hub, an online-platform for sharing 3D scans.
The Phiz full set with smartphone and laptop attachments, IOS and Android apps and Phiz software for Windows and MacOS, as well as free shipping is available for 299 CA$ (Approx. 229$). Phiz Lite set without the phone tower and the apps is available for 259 CA$ (Approx. 199$). Kiri will ship the first units in December. More information is available on the project’s Kickstarter campaign page and on the official website. If you’re interested in 3D technologies but don’t know where to start, check out this guide.
