As of writing this, scientists at the University’s Computer Vision and Geometry (CVG) Lab have yet to give their app a name, but they have shared a number of details about their patent pending application. According to researchers, the new app uses a smartphone’s camera to continuously scan objects in front of its retina. As the user moves their phone around an object the app uses the device’s native inertial sensors to select part of the image required to build a 3D surface. What’s more, as a user scans an object a visual representation of their model appears, allowing anyone to see which areas of the model need to be stitched with further pans of the phone’s camera.
“Only two years ago, such a software [could] only run on massive computers. We were able to shrink processes down [to] smartphone level and make them highly efficient”, says Marc Pollefeys, professor at the CVG Lab.
While no timetable has been set for the release of the CVG app, you can bet a ton of people will be looking forward to getting their hands on it – I'll be among them.
Images and Video Courtesy of ETH Zurich