Is the D415 capable of scanning small objects and generate a 3D model?

[TQian]

Hello everyone, I am a student working on a school competition, and I require a camera to scan some objects which are smaller than 3cm*3cm*3cm, it doesn't need to be very accurate, 0.5mm will be more than enough, has anyone tried to scan such a small object?

If it works, what software should I use to generate the 3D model?

I was trying to take a lot of photos of the objects and then generate 3D models with Agisoft PhotoScan, but the results aren't so pleasant, so I guess a depth camera should do the job better.

Thanks a lot for the help!

[MartyG · Accepted solution]

The D415 would be suited to the task. Due to very high demand for this new camera and the D435 model, it may not be available to be purchased for a couple of months until existing pre-orders have been fulfilled though.

So if you are on a near-future deadline, a better option for you may be the Robotic Development Kit, a bundle deal of an RealSense R200 camera and a single-board mini computer that is heavily discounted for clearance in the Intel Click online store (as it is now a retired product, though is still tech-supported on this forum).

It could do the scan task, and you could also make use of the free '3DScan' program that comes with the '2016 R2' Windows version of the RealSense SDK software. 3DScan, which is very simple to use, can scan an object and export an .OBJ model file of it, which can then be imported into a package such as Blender for further editing if need be.

https://click.intel.com/intelr-realsensetm-robotic-development-kit-2450.html Intel® RealSense™ Robotic Development Kit - Intel® RealSense™ Depth Cameras

This is probably the most user-friendly option too, since the D415 and D435's SDK (RealSense SDK 2.0) does not have 3D model scanning supplied with it.

Linked below is a guide to scanning with 3DScan and preparing the exported file for further editing.

https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2015/03/24/intel-realsense-3d-scanning-scan-then-convert-obj-to-ply-for-blender-unity Intel RealSense 3D scanning: How To Scan then Prep for Blender & Unity | Intel® Software

I'm "off shift" now, but if you have follow-up questions, I will gladly reply first thing on Tuesday morning if somebody has not helped already. Good luck!