Aussie start-up Eora 3D builds iPhone-powered 3D laser scanner

Faced with a $20,000 bill for a decent 3D scanner, three young Australian entrepreneurs decided to focus on building their own iPhone-powered scanner which sells for a fraction of the price.

Eora 3D's scanner was born from the need for a precise laser scanner to verify the accuracy of a large parabolic dish used to focus sunlight on solar panels. The quest led Eora 3D co-founders Rahul Koduri​, Richard Boers and Asfand Khan to design a $199 3D laser scanner powered by any model iPhone 5 or 6 – with support for Android and Windows Phone devices on the way.

Having completed development of the 3D scanner and lined up manufacturers in China, Eora 3D is launching a Kickstarter​ crowdfunding project in September to help cover manufacturing costs and is on the lookout for seed funding as well as Australian manufacturing partners. Eora 3D is a local finalist in the Seedstars World global start-up competition and is set to represent Australia at the finals in Geneva next March.

The cylindrical Eora 3D scanner keeps the price down by relying on a smartphone to do most of the work. The scanner doesn't feature a built-in camera. Instead it projects a green laser beam which sweeps across the object to be scanned. The smartphone controls the laser while photographing the object, capturing several images per second to track the laser and map the contours of the object

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"Our aim is precision because we've designed this for use with manufacturing," Koduri says.

"Studying the laser beam as it passes across the surface of an object is much more precise than simply using multiple cameras to create a 3D scan from photographs. Just taking photos would be faster, but using a laser creates a much more precise colour 3D model with sub-100 micron accuracy."

The 3D scanner comes with a small turntable, controlled via Bluetooth, which allows it to rotate and scan objects up to 200 millimetres tall – taking about five minutes to complete a scan which can be exported as an industry standard polygon PLY file.

The strength of Eora 3D's scanner is that it can also be used to scan larger objects and the scanner features a tripod mount on the bottom.

"Unlike most 3D scanners, ours isn't completely reliant on the turntable so you can point it at any object," Koduri says.

"It scans a one-metre square, with a range of one metre, and the great thing is that the software can automatically stitch multiple scans together – so you can scan pretty much anything, one section at a time from any angle, and still end up with a perfect 3D model."

Acting as a gateway between the physical and virtual realms, the Eora 3D scanner allows designers to digitise physical objects, manipulate them in software and then drop those objects into virtual worlds or else export them back to the real world using a 3D printer. 3D scanners and printers are also useful for proofing product designs to avoid expensive mistakes at the manufacturing stage, Koduri says.

"Our 3D scanner is perfect for scanning clay models and other organic shapes which can be difficult to produce from scratch using Computer Aided Design software," he says.

"We already have a jewellery designer in Sydney who uses the scanner to proof moulds before sending them to the manufacturer. We're also working with 3D Printing Studios, an Australian 3D printing service which is making our scanner available to a handful of customers – it's all about putting accurate 3D scanning within reach of more people."