3-D Scanner

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What Does 3-D Scanner Mean?

A 3-D scanner is a device that identifies, analyzes, collects and draws/displays shapes or three-dimensional models of real-world environments or solid objects. A 3-D scanner enables the capture of geometric shapes and the recreation of the physical appearance of tangible objects, allowing them to be built and displayed on a computer device.

Techopedia Explains 3-D Scanner

A 3-D scanner captures the structural and surface design and depth of the scanned object. It can also collect information on the color of the object. The 3-D scanner calculates the distance between its focal views to the object in determining the 3-D coordinates of the entire object/image/surface. Typically, multiple scans of an object in different positions/angels must be taken before an object/environment can be completely captured.

There are two key types of 3-D scanners:

  • Contact 3-D Scanners: Requires the object to be physically in contact with the scanner in order to probe and record its dimensions.
  • Non-Contact 3D Scanners: Use ultraviolet radiation, ultrasound waves and radiation that reflects back from the surface of the object and is recorded by the scanner.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.