A California-based company has developed a relatively inexpensive camera that creates three-dimensional images on a cloud-based platform in much less time and with less effort than conventional technology.
Matterport is marketing its $4500 Pro 3D camera and subscription-based cloud services to architects, builders, and other industries where visualizing interior spaces would be valuable. According to an article posted at CNET, a user would be able to capture the raw data for the image with as few as four to six sweeps of the room with the camera. The camera’s three sensors complete one motorized sweep in about 30 seconds.
The images are stitched together into a completed file with the cloud-based subscription service in 30 to 45 minutes, CNET said. A completed file is between 50 megabytes and 73 megabytes.
“We’ve automated that entire process and got it to the point where anybody can operate the camera and the cloud processing figures out how to do everything,” Matterport CEO Bill Brown told CNET. “It puts this thing together like a jigsaw puzzle.”
A viewer can take a walk around the room, or fly overhead, with simple commands on a computer or an iPad. The company says it also is developing tools that will allow a user to manipulate the image by changing wall colors, for example, adding furniture, or altering flooring.
The Mountain View, Calif., company was founded in 2011. For a Vimeo presentation on how the system works, follow this link.
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A new 3-D camera from California-based Matterport will allow architects and builders to create lifelike three-dimensional images of interior spaces.
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Thanks Scott. We'll put this camera on the magazine's wish-list. Sounds like a great tool, I'll be curious to see if it catches on...
fine homebuilding should do some builder tech articles on computers tablets and phones for the building industry
Good idea. We've never had great luck with software articles, per se, because the long lead time and the fact that nothing in the tech world stays the same for very long, which diminishes the article's value to the audience. But something on hardware and its best uses might be useful.
Chuck