Scanning shiny or reflective objects with the Makerbot Digitzer 3D Scanner


Not all objects or materials were created equal when it comes to reflecting light. Highly reflective materials, like the stapler pictured below, can create an effect much like a lens flare on your camera, overloading the sensor with light. 


You can solve this problem by dusting your object with baby powder (we used a little bronzer). 

Just look at the difference between the models below. This was a very quick example. 

Clearly we could have blown off some of the flour to get a smoother finish in the scan. 

It was just done to quickly show the tremendous difference this makes to the scanners ability to scan the object