Irish Archaeological Research Digital Magazine
Irish Archaeological Research Digital Magazine
Irish Archaeological Research Digital Magazine
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The Equipment<br />
The Scanning<br />
<strong>Irish</strong> <strong>Archaeological</strong> <strong>Research</strong> Issue 2 Jan 2012<br />
When I set up my kit and printed out the backgrounds that I needed so that the camera would know the distance<br />
and position of the scanning laser I was ready to start. The technique they recommend with the software I chose<br />
was to set up the equipment in a dark room (so the<br />
laser shows bright on the webcam), slowly pass the<br />
laser beam over the artefact until you can see the<br />
scan is complete then rotate the object and repeat.<br />
The results I got from following the David<br />
Laserscanner instructions were immediate and<br />
stunning, the texture and detail looked great through<br />
the live feed displayed on my desktop. I wanted to<br />
try and scan everything immediately; the cat and my<br />
fiancée Rachel were all suitable candidates in my<br />
head when I had got it working. The most successful<br />
test that I performed was on a human skull that an<br />
oesteoarchaeologist friend of mine asked me to try<br />
and scan. The scan showed a great amount of detail<br />
and made me think that there could be a real<br />
possibility for 3D scanning as a possibility for post<br />
excavation analysis. For spending under £100 on a<br />
basic kit and achieving excellent results that with a 3D<br />
printer would print out a reasonable facsimile of an<br />
artefact.<br />
I looked around the internet for<br />
processing software to render my 3D<br />
images from my scans and found that the<br />
David Laserscanner software is free to try<br />
(it unlocks higher resolutions and more<br />
scanning options for the full version) and<br />
had the nicest looking results straight out<br />
of the box. I then started to look at the<br />
technological requirements of the<br />
scanning software and after exhausting<br />
the internet forums discovered that all I<br />
needed was a HD webcam and a line<br />
laser. The HD webcam that I purchased<br />
was a Logitech C910 HD Webcam; it had<br />
received great reviews and cost around<br />
£60. The laser component needed to<br />
produce a line as opposed to the dot of<br />
light you see in a laser pointer. I found<br />
that you could purchase a line laser on<br />
Ebay for £10 and added it to my kit. In all, including wood that I used to build an area to do the scanning and a Lazy<br />
Susan for rotating my object, the whole kit came in at under £100.<br />
3D Scanning in the front room<br />
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