How to Import a Real World Object as a 3D Mesh in SL

This is a pretty cool hack: Using ReconstructMe, a real-time 3d reconstruction system which uses the Kinect and other camera tech, an SLer named Stizzo Undset scanned the real world Hello Kitty sculpture at left into a 3D mesh object in SL. He also scanned his own head and turned it into a virtual sculpture in SL. Watch the video below, and read his commentary on the process:

The video is quite long and unedited, so if you want to fast-forward, Hello Kitty appears in-world around 8:45. We see Mr. Undset's actual head in SL at around 10:00.

"Scanning process is very fast," he tells me. "For this object, less than 1 minute (after need some time for cleanup the mesh as you want before the upload). Objects can be very big as the software support multiscan, problem is with tiny object due to Kinect sensor limit. You can find more detailed information on Reconstructme's website."

As for the scan of Mr. Undset himself, that was a bit more complicated: "[I]n 2-3 minutes or less you can do a full body scan with arm and legs. Only need someone going around you with the scanning device (Microsoft Windows/Xbox Kinect or Asus Xtion pro)." I'd love to see more like this in SL.

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Comments

[shockwave yareach]

You can also use a rotating chair, and slowly turn in place with a static Kinect doing the recording. The trick to this is to not move any at all in the chair while the sampling takes place, which takes practice.

Also, using rubber furniture floor protection pads under the wheels keeps the chair from moving while you rotate the seat.

[Interference]

Interesting as it is, it's largely impractical. The poly count, even for that tiny Hello Kitty statue is insanely high; Blender reports it as about 30,000 tris. The average count for a complex character model in a modern videogame is just under HALF that, and this is just a tiny statue. Watching the video, you can see that it cost him over 100 lindens to upload and has a land impact of about 483.

Until there's an intelligent system to re-order and reduce imported geometry, things'll still sadly have to be done by hand.

[Kim Anubis]

Nifty hack, and yet if they had scanned and duplicated artwork by an SL merchant instead of Sanrio there'd be twenty people here screaming for a Linden crackdown, and by tomorrow there'd be at least two selling spammy devices and magical amulets to block it.

What are the legal issues involved in scanning and reproducing real-world objects, even in cases where someone hasn't filed for copyright or trademark protection? Like, if you scan your desk chair, for example, could the chair manufacturer come after you, or no?

Fun times.

[Brookston Holiday]

Nifty...

@interference
Maya and max have ways of reducing a complex scanned object like that that give rather practical results in my humble opinion.

This and a few other things are making me want to break down and get a kinect camera finally.

[elizabeth (16)]

is pretty cool this

[Justmeagain]

There is NO reason a mesh object can not have it's polygons reduced in blender OR with Meshlab, is there?

Meshlab was made (and is free) for this EXACT reason!! To reduce polygons counts in scanned objects and keep them looking as accurate as possible.

Blender has basic poly reduce and/or decimation (they sort of do the same thing) built in (2.49) to reduce polygon count. The newer blender must have something similar as well.

Blender 2.6 or so does have the addition of a light version of Bmesh and that can be used for re-topology (retopo for short) work over one of these scanned objects, or any model that is complex and to much work needed to reduce ply count and needs some exact placements of rings or verts to help with animation. That is a bit more advanced though.

Meshlab seems to the tailor made solution and easy for all to get and use. I even just read they have a IOS version. I know nothing of this though, so maybe you can reduce meshes right on your phone? Worth reading about if you are into scanning and it is available for free from Sourceforge.

[Justmeagain]

Legal implication are brought up, and this is an issue that has been in court. A car company did take a 3d modeller to court over a car he modelled. Someone who was discussing it in a forum suspected he had scanned a car and used the exact dimensions, so he was basically in trouble for the exactness.

I don't know the details, but a lawyer may help, but if you can look it all up and research it the court records may be somewhere. I am not a paralegal or lawyer, so I can't even begin to point you in the direction of where this is available.

If it was in the USA it might be public record and the legal system is a system of precedent, so any judgment may effect others in similar cases.

Either way, it may be interesting to read about just because there is an odd idea there. If someone can design something, and also get a design patent then surely a 3D model of this design starts to infringe in some tiny way?

That is scary, because it is hard to see the damage because most users are just having fun and are not involved in trying to hurt the entity that designed it. Which may be the issue that stops any legal action against most people, it is hard to prove damages. An exact model of a car, for instance, could be used for making a exact copy. But wouldn't the exact copy be the issue, not the model? I mean, aftermarket body parts are already created for cars, like windshields. But, it is the windshield company itself damaging, they are the end seller and manufacturer. Do they presently buy models from car companies to help make their parts? Then I can see why, but I don't work in that industry and don't know, sorry.

Another interesting to think about but sort of odd is slander. You could be seen as damaging a companies image and it may go out of the protection offered for parodies and the item doesn't have to be an exact copy.

But, if you could make, for example, an advert that is very serious looking and is rather slanderous sounding and you simply grab a model to use in the scene. You can imagine a easily recognizable object may make the manufacturer see you as slandering them specifically.
A funny story I remember was about the popularity of the band Winger at the end of the the 80's metal/rock era. This band had stadiums full of fans each tour stop. Beavis and Butthead's dorky Stuart character made them very unpopular (so some think) with any potential new fans. Also, there was a shift toward Grunge and alt rock happening, people where sort of all bored with the hair metal/rock stuff. But some believe that Stuart killed Wingers cool. They ended up with empty places by the end of the tour during which Beavis and Butthead aired! No joke, you can never tell what can be damaging. I don't think winger ever took Stuart to court, or at least the creators.

A false recall on an item as a hoax or prank? Similarly strange territory. What one sees as art, fun or even just may seem very much wrong and prosecutable.

[Kim Anubis]

I especially like that Winger story.

What really got me thinking about the rights issues is industrial design, which is done in 3d modeling software. Products like mops and office chairs start out as 3d models before they become real objects put out by a factory. And sometime in the not so far future, they might just come out of a 3d printer. Then what's the difference between scanning that real-world mop or chair and the infamous Copybot?

In fact, suppose someone got one of those sculptures you can buy that's a 3d printer model of a SL avatar. Then suppose someone else scanned it with this Kinnect hack and put it back in SL?

Even thinking about something as mundane as a chair or something like that ... If you make a chair in SL, you're an artist, and your creation is automatically covered by copyright. But it would probably require a greater investment of time, money, and effort to create a real-world chair, right? And there's the same original expression in the design and execution, even if the materials are wood, metal, and cloth instead of prims and textures and scripts and poses. So why isn't that real-world chair not protected by the same copyrights? Wouldn't scanning that real chair and making a virtual one from it fall into the area of, at least, derivative works?

I dunno, I think this could become a legal and ethical morass in the future. An interesting one, though.

[Interference]

There are plenty of utilities to reduce poly counts but the effort required to get this mesh reduced to a point where it's clean, easy to UV map and low poly means you might as well just model it by hand.

[Kate H.]

I'm surprised at the legal implications aspect - yes, you can pretty much copy any patented material object in order to replicate it.
Just wanted to ask if it's possible to import an object when it is moving....for example, a spring that is compressing and expanding from a shock absorber, or a brake pedal clamping down and releasing. I would assume a slow moving object can still be scanned. This could perhaps be used to compute stresses and strains on mechanical auto parts and failure points in cars axles and joints perhaps?
-Kate from PartsAvatar Aftermarket Auto Parts.