The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository

In recent years, the number of range scanners and surface reconstruction algorithms has been growing rapidly. Many researchers, however, do not have access to scanning facilities or dense polygonal models. The purpose of this repository is to make some range data and detailed reconstructions available to the public. Here's how the models in this repository were created:

Scanning and surface reconstruction

The first set of models below, called "The Stanford Models", were scanned with a Cyberware 3030 MS scanner, with the exception of Lucy, who was scanned with the Stanford Large Statue Scanner, designed for the Digital Michelangelo Project. Both scanners are swept-stripe, laser triangulation range scanners. The triangulation calculations all the Stanford models except the Happy Buddha and Dragon were performed in hardware by the Cyberware scanner(s). These last two models were acquired using Brian Curless's spacetime analysis. Each scan takes the form of a range image, described in the local coordinate system of the scanner. To merge these range images, we must first align them together. For all the Stanford models, alignment was done using a modified ICP algorithm, as described in this paper. These alignments are stored in ".conf" files, which list each range image in the model along with a translation and a quaternion rotation. Finally, the aligned range images are combined to produce a single triangle mesh (a process sometimes called surface reconstruction) using either zippering or volumetric merging, two methods developed at Stanford. The entry for each model indicates which method was used. Implementations of both methods are currently available for download, respectively, at ZipPack and VripPack. The second method is the surface reconstruction method invoked by the Scanalyze software package used in the Digital Michelangelo Project. Another software package that might be of interest is Volfill, our diffusion-based hole filler for large polygon meshes.