Automatic 3D shape recovery for rapid prototyping

The capacity to create, display and manipulate a three-dimensional (3D) computer model and produce a physical replica of an existing object, enabling 3D re-shaping activities, plays an important role in different areas such as engineering, biology, architecture and archaeology. Some improvements have been made in a biologically based computer-aided design system, called BioCAD, specifically designed for the rapid and accurate 3D shape recovery from existing large objects, creating 3D computer models either to produce sophisticated photo-realistic renderings, two-dimensional drawings, or to generate surface models for simulation purposes and rapid prototyping applications. This improved system comprises three main routines through which the major findings are as follows: i) the algorithm for "ciliary" calibration routine enables to converge all digital image sequence, so uncertainties decrease, resulting in higher accuracy; ii) through the binocular stereopsis routine, the 3D shape of the perceived large object can actually be inferred; iii) STL and SLI routine allows to integrate BioCAD system and other advanced computer-aided technologies, enabling one to obtain a very small layer thickness from a straightforward slicing process of STL files with a large dimension, minimising the slicing processing time by exploring the advantage of the Matlab language, in terms of matrix manipulation and RAM memory of personal computers.