ritter@versatc.versatec.COM (Jack Ritter) (10/09/90)
Periodically, the subject of 3d digitizing comes
up. There seems to be lots of ways of doing it,
with no "best" way as yet. If it's still a blue-sky
issue, then we could have a blue-sky dialog
on the topic (where we can say technologically
irresponsible things.)
I'll throw out an idea, and people can respond
via, let's say, email, and if things
get out of hand I'll turn it over to the net.
- Talking Clay Idea -
To digitize an arbitrary (non-connected, with holes)
SOLID, sculpted from, say clay, we use Talking Clay:
Clay that has many tiny beacons in it, having been kneaded
thouroughly in so as to randomly distribute them. A
beacon is a tiny object (order of cubic millimeter),
which says: "I'M A BEACON AND I AM HERE".
Each beacon in the clay is indivdually located by
some kind if detection gear: the cheapest beacons would
be iron spheres. These would be detected based on
the passive magnetic propwerties of iron. Failing this,
a beacon could be an emitter. It wouldn't need a power
supply, it could absorb enery from micro waves that
would be shot into the clay mass. They could give
off "blips" that are unique for each beacon (the unique
parameter could be frequency, duration, phase, or
even randomly manufactured digital codes, like garage door
openers).
The detecting gear could be Xray technology, CAT scan
and other tomographic techniques, NMR, etc.
The beacons would have to be individually recognized,
so the detection gear would be very hi resolution.
Maybe the beacons could be individually located by
triangulation. (My knowledge of radiation detection
stuff is obviously novice).
Solid materials like plastic could be used, so long
as the stuff was manufactured with lots of beacons in it.
SURFACE DIGITIZING: Imagine a liquid which could hold
beacons in a colloidal suspension. The object to be
surface-digitized would be dunked into the stuff, and
then scanned (right away, or after the "paint" drys).
And if the liquid could hold a charge, such that the
beacons would repel one another, then the beacons would
fall into a nice Poisson distribution over the surface.
(Oh wouldn't THAT be grand!).
--
Versatec, Inc.
Jack Ritter, M.S. 1-7
2710 Walsh Ave.
P.O. Box 58091
Santa Clara, CA 95052-8091
(408)982-4332, or (408)988-2800 X 5743
UUNET: {ames,apple,sun,pyramid}!versatc!ritter
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