Digital Home Thoughts: Webcams Are Not For Awkward Video Chats Anymore

"It’s called ProFORMA, or Probabilistic Feature-based On-line Rapid Model Acquisition, but it is way cooler than it sounds. The software, written by a team headed by Qui Pan, a student at the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University in England, turns a regular, cheap webcam into a 3D scanner."

I am sure some of you would consider this to be in the "Why? Because I Can!" category, the ProFORMA software actually looks like it could have lots of practical uses. The speed and detail at which is accomplishes a 3D scan of an object is impressive, and I can see how combined with the right CAD software, and a 3D printer, or a company like Shapeways, you could come up with really neat designs. Come to think of it, it could also be used to image and archive a lot of stuff around the house as well. After watching the video, I was reminded of two other, possibly related technologies. Augmented reality, which instead of creating 3D models, uses the fast image acquisition tech to "enhance" what you can see through a camera. The other technology is Microsoft's Photosynth, which stitches together various photos into one large quasi-picture. This seems to do the same thing, but a much more specific purpose.