Trimentional app turns iPhone into a 3D scanner

Here’s one we missed last week: Georgia Tech Research Scientist Grant Schindler has turned an iPhone (or iPad 2 or new iPod touch) into a 3D scanner.

The concept is relatively simple.  The subject or object is photographed in a dark room with light from different part of the iOS device’s screen.  Those images are sewn together to form the image in 3D.  From there, you can either email a movie of the subject or print it out on a 3D printer.

“There are professional, $40,000 3-D scanners out there; this won’t perform like those do, but for anything under $100, this is your best bet,” added Schindler.