2. Scanning and processing 3D objects for web display

We present a case study of scanning 3D objects for the purposes of education and public information. We begin by describing the original design of a 3D scanning system now in use in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. The system captures both the geometry and surface color and detail of museum artifacts. We report on the experience using the system in the museum setting, and how practical problems with the system were addressed. We present samples of how the processed 3D data will be used on a web site designed to communicate Egyptian culture.We present a case study of scanning 3D objects for the purposes of education and public information. We begin by describing the original design of a 3D scanning system now in use in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. The system captures both the geometry and surface color and detail of museum artifacts. We report on the experience using the system in the museum setting, and how practical problems with the system were addressed. We present samples of how the processed 3D data will be used on a web site designed to communicate Egyptian culture.

ID scanning, the media and the politics of urban surveillance in an Australian regional city

Computerised ID scanning technologies have permeated many urban night-time economies in Australia, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. This paper documents how one media organisation’s overt and tacit approval of ID scanners helped to normalise this form of surveillance as a precondition of entry into most licensed venues in the Australian city of Geelong. After outlining how processes of governance “from above” and “from below” interweave to generate distinct political and media demands for strategies to prevent localised crime problems, a chronological reconstruction of media reports over a three-and-a half year period demonstrates how ID scanning became the centrepiece of a holistic reform strategy to combat alcohol-related violence in this nightclub precinct. Several discursive techniques helped to normalise this “technological fix”, while suppressing critical discussion of viable concerns over information privacy, data security and system networking. These
included pairing reports of an initial “signal crime” with examples of “virtual victimhood” to stress the urgency of a radical surveillance-based response, which was supported by anecdotal statements from key “primary definers” highlighting the success of this initiative in targeting a wider population of antisocial “others”. The implications of these reporting practices are discussed in light of the media’s central role in reforming the Geelong night-time economy and broader trends in using novel surveillance technologies to combat urban crime problems at the expense of alternative measures that protect individual liberty.

Freehand 3D Scanning in a Mobile Environment using Video

This work is motivated by two important trends in consumer computing: (i) the growing pervasiveness of mobile computing devices, and (ii) the users’ desire for increasingly complex but readily acquired and manipulated information content. Specifically, we develop and describe a system for 3D model creation of an object, using only a standard mobile device such as a smart phone. Our approach applies the structured light projection methodology and exploits multiple image input such as frames from a video sequence. In comparison with previous work, a significant further challenge addressed here is that of lower quality input data and limited hardware (processing power and memory, camera and projector quality). Novelties include: (i) a comparison of projection pattern detection approaches in the context of a mobile environment – a robust method combining colour detection and a phase congruency descriptor is evaluated, (ii) a model for single view reconstruction which exploits epipolar, coplanarity and topological constraints, (iii) the use of mobile device sensor data in the iterative closest point algorithm used to register multiple partial 3D reconstructions, and (iv) two heuristics for determining the order in which buffered single view based reconstructions are merged. Our experiments demonstrate that visually appealing results are obtained in a speedy manner which does not require specialist knowledge or expertise from the user.