3D Scanner Gives The Full Picture: "'There are 3D scanners available now but they tend to be large and expensive, requiring technical lighting and camera set-ups. They are used in very specialised industrial applications to record shapes for computer animation, model the exteriors of vehicles and so on,' Ms McDonald says.

The CSIRO 3D scanning technology is unique in that it could be easily incorporated into designs of new mass market flatbed scanners, fax machines or photocopiers, making 3D scanning accessible to the home and office user.

'Instead of 3D scanners just being the lumbering pieces of equipment that they are now', says Ms McDonald, 'you could fit one of these on your desk'.

'They would also be relatively inexpensive - costing only a small premium over conventional scanning technologies, rather than the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars you'd pay for existing 3D scanners', she said."
jaynote: this sounds like the old trick of scanning an object twice, each on either side of the center of the scanner.