Preliminary Study on Development of 3D Free-Form Surface Reconstruction System Using a Webcam Imaging Technique

Reverse engineering faces challenges when it comes to data extraction using indirect contact method. There are 3D scanners capable of extracting data from distance more than a few meters away without contacting the objects but yet limited to same space range only. Although synchronizing the 3D scanners from another place can enable long distance data extraction, synchronizing devices over long distance can lead to other issues such as lagging. Moreover, the uses of 3D scanners usually involve quite long consumption time regardless of same space range or long distance range application. To overcome these issues, this study introduces a 3D surface reconstruction system by including a webcam imaging technique to produce a 3D point cloud, which is the same as that produced by a 3D scanner, and thus, eliminate the use of a 3D scanner. Through webcam imaging, image data can be transferred over the Internet and can be shared instantly even in different locations. Hence, webcam imaging is an alternative to using a 3D scanner. This system will continuously generate 3D free-form surfaces to resemble the surface profile of physical objects. Acquiring data until the surface fitting process will take less time compared with using a combination of 3D scanner and CAD software. In addition, results produced from the webcam imaging technique are compared with conventional results from a 3D scanner.