MobileFusion is the name of a new Microsoft Research project which will let people take, and send, 3D images with their mobile phones, as easily as taking a normal picture or video.
“This is really about the accessibility and ubiquity of 3D scanning,” said Shahram Izadi, a principal researcher who works on the project.
Google, with project Tango, is taking a more ambitious approach to 3D scanning. Concentrating more on 3D environments and new hardware, the company says its goal is “to give mobile devices a human-scale understanding of space and motion”.
The researchers at Microsoft, never the less, found that there is enough computing power in modern phones to build a 3d-scanning device, without even needing a WiFi connection. They are working to make it available to the general public as an app, on all platforms, but there are no concrete plans or dates till now.
