Scanning with colour

Tom Shelley reports on a reverse engineering technology with a difference. Items can now not only be accurately laser scanned to obtain their dimensions in 3D, but also their visual appearance including colour. This is particularly useful both for medical applications and for recording antiques. The system to do this has been developed by the National Research Council of Canada, but is available for use at the premises of a company with offices in Scotland and Ireland, but with plans to expand into England. Scanning accuracy, according to general manager, Peter Wilson, is down to 8 microns, but what really sets the machines apart from their competitors is their incorporation of red, green and blue channels in the laser light scan, and the capture of colour by the CCD camera. The largest machine currently in the possession of the company can scan objects up to 2.5m long, and 1.2m wide and high. This is useful in engineering work, because it not only enables the recording of form, but also of worn areas, or variations in surface coating. It may also be used for medical purposes, and for the recording of art and antiques. Presently, this is not so much being used to enable the creation of high quality reproduction antiques, although it could be, but in order to establish that when valuable items are returned from loans, evaluations, or attempted sales, they are the articles originally sent, and not good quality copies. Kestrel 3D