Bevel Turns Your Phone Into A 3D Scanner For $49

Here at TechCrunch we’re eagerly awaiting the day when 3D photographs are just as mainstream as traditional ones. We even have an ongoing collection of some TC writers modeled in 3D.

However, like many early technologies, 3D capture devices are mostly too expensive and complicated to cater to the masses.

Canadian company Matter and Form is aiming to change this with Bevel, a device that plugs into your phone’s audio jack and allows it to capture 3D photographs. The device is currently in the midst of a $200,000 Kickstarter campaign, and eventually will retail for $49.

Bevel uses an eye-safe laser that acts as a fixed light source to capture scale and geometric detail, while your phone’s camera captures color, texture and other details. The result is a 360-degree model that you can rotate, zoom and even 3D-print.

Notably, the device and software will also work across a variety of phones and platforms, since it will ship with a calibration card that will help it adjust for various phone sizes and headphone jack locations.

Bevel will also come with a companion app, which will allow users to capture and share these 3D models.

While the company said these captured images will probably be saved in a proprietary format, the app will allow them to be exportable in common 3D formats so they can be printed or imported into other software.

Matter and Form is also launching Cashew, which is the company’s new (still in beta) online platform to upload and share 3D content.

While Cashew is similar to existing services like Sketchfab, users should benefit from the easy ability to upload to Cashew directly from the Bevel app. Cashew will also allow users to send models directly to 3D printing services like Shapeways.

Matter and Form already has experience launching 3D hardware products. Last year, they launched a relatively affordable 3D scanner, which we took a look at in a hands-on review. Now, the company is bringing 3D scanning to the masses, with the very affordably priced Bevel.

The company’s end goal is to allow users to create and consume 3D media “without all of the BS that comes with traditional 3D software and programs.” Drew Cox, founder and CEO of Matter and Form, emphasized that most hardware and software in the 3D ecosystem was developed a long time ago, and isn’t very intuitive.

The devices are expected to ship late Q4/early Q1 2016 and can be preordered on Kickstarter now.

Comments

Five budget-friendly open source storage servers

Storage is essential for the enterprise: Data must be stored. Data must be retrieved. Data must be shared. Data must be secured. At the same time, storage must not consume the entirety of your IT budget. Fortunately, you can find effective solutions in the world of open source. Outside of cost effectiveness, one of the biggest benefits of these solutions is the ability to modify them to perfectly fit your needs. You can make minor changes or even roll your own storage solution based on one of these tools. If you want enterprise support and a "solution in a can" that will meet just about any enterprise storage need, you should turn to Red Hat or SUSE. Both Linux-based companies offer some of the most powerful enterprise-ready tools on the market. But if you'd rather get your hands dirty and craft something of your own—something that won't demolish your budget—these five open source tools are a great place to start. 1: ownCloud ownCloud ( Figure ...

Visa confirms Coinbase wasn’t at fault for overcharging users

Yesterday, we wrote that Coinbase customers were being charged multiple times for past transactions. While some speculated that the erroneous withdraws were down to a Coinbase engineering issue, Coinbase issued a statement saying it wasn’t liable for the duplicate charges. The blame, instead, rested with Visa for the way it handled a migration of merchant categories for cryptocurrencies, Coinbase said. While you can read my post yesterday for an in-depth description of what happened, the basic gist is that Visa refunded and recharged (under a different merchant category) a month of old transactions. Many users saw the recharge come through before the refund processed, making it look like they were double charged. Honestly, the issue was likely exacerbated by existing payment rails — it’s normal for refunds to take multiple days to show up on credit and debit statements. But here’s where it gets weird — this morning Visa issued a statement to some publications shifting the blam...

Detail

hi this is ajijulla sahib from sri ganesh college of engineering and technology

Facebook Now Supports PGP To Send You Encrypted Emails

You can now instruct Facebook to encrypt every email it sends to you so nobody — not even the NSA — is likely to be able to read your messages anytime soon. All you have to do is import your public PGP key into your Facebook settings and you’re good to go. The problem here, of course, is that most people have no idea how public/private key email encryption works and how to even get started with it. In the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks, a number of organizations, including Google, promised to completely hide the complexities of end-to-end email encryption from regular users. Very few of these products have materialized so far, however — not for lack of trying, but because this is actually a very complex problem, both from a technical and user experience perspective. Facebook uses the well-established PGP scheme (the GNU Privacy Guard implementation of OpenPGP, to be precise) to encrypt messages and tools lik...

Microsoft allays privacy concerns of Windows 10 users

Microsoft attempts to put all rumours related to Windows 10 privacy concern to rest GettyImages Allaying concerns of Windows 10 users over privacy, Microsoft has said information is collected only to offer a better OS experience. Besides, it provides users the ability to have control over the information collected. Microsoft asserts that Windows 10 is based on these two major principles. Besides, the data collected from every system is encrypted to the company's servers and remains in secure facilities. The company says information such as device ID, device type and application crash data is collected in order to help the user obtain an even more secure OS experience. Microsoft clarifies that the data does not include the user's personal files or content. Another reason that Microsoft collects data is to offer a better personalised windows experience. This includes updates on game scores, app recommendations and the common words one types in messaging. If users are ...

Exciting Technology

Search This Blog