Converting a human into 3d

Question

This might not be completely relevant to stackoverflow but I have no better site where to post this.

We have gotten a request to develop something that can get a real human into a 3d application including textures.

Now I have no idea how to handle this as we have no previous experience. So is this possible and if it's possible what kind of things would we need ?

Edit: Just some additional info, this is an idea a teacher at my school came up with and he wants it to be able to scan people in, in a few minutes. So the most viable thing seems to be the use of multiple camera's possibly in combination with a green/blue screen.

Answer 1

In principle you need to use a 3D scanner to capture the 3D structure of the person. I have no experience with these, but they are commercially available.

For the surface, you could just photograph the person, then use software to create textures (you'd need to remove perspective distortion etc.). Then assemble everything in a 3D software.

That's just a very rough outline; the process is rather complex.

If I may ask: How did you get such a complex project with "no previous experience"? Seems rather unusual...

Answer 2

If you need textures, you'll need at least one camera. You might want to install several cameras and use stereo vision techniques to get the 3d information. You could also fuse one camera with measurements of one or more laser scanners or Time of Flight Cameras (yielding distance images).

If you also need motion models you should take a look at what sports games do (EA Sports, Pro Evolution Soccer...). As far as I know they record motion based on marks placed on people.

Maybe this helps as a first start.

Answer 3

There is a company in Glasgow, Scotland that have a lot of experience with this: Dimensional Imaging Ltd.

Their demos look impressive and I know a lot of original research on this has been done in Glasgow.