“The Laser Scanner is a Raspberry Pi embedded system device able to digitize objects into .obj mesh files for reproduction using 3D printing. The device does this by utilizing a line laser and an integrated PiCam to perform computer vision. The laser is positioned 45 degrees askew from the laser and projects a bright red line on one vertical slice of the object. The camera detects the slices distance from the center to give a mesh slice. The object is spun on the rotating tray and the process is repeated until the full object is scanned. The generated .obj file is finally emailed to the user, making the system fully standalone and embedded.
This Instructable will walk through how the device was built, some results, and future steps.”