One of the first things we are trying to improve is the onboard laser scanner resolution.
The Alpha prototype was a miserable 640×480 USB Webcam, we are now working with hi-definition CMOS Sensors.
In the FABtotum, the Laser Scanner works with some trigonometry wizardry to translate a projected laser line into a set of points in the 3D space (called point cloud data).The camera is there to capture the object being selectively illuminated by a laser line.
The first step is to improve the image quality, and that is done by fine-tuning the CMOS sensor and the optics.
That is pursued in order to improve the sharpness of the profile of the object being scanned,and therefore giving a more reliable scan.

In the picture you can see a small focusing test-bed created to verify the correct focusing of the lenses.
Focusing distance is the distance at wich the image is sharp, and the resulting depth of field is the “depth” of the focusing area.
For example, the camera used to take that picure was focusing on the subject of the picture, the test bed.
Everything behind and in front of it are out of focus. The depth of field of this picture is the distance from those two extremes.
I’t should be clar at this point that having a good bepth of field and image quality is a good starting point to make a 3d-scan!

The CMOS, on the left (a Raspberry Pi Camera) is being focused on the target on the right of the rail.
Focusing the camera is done by unscrewing the optics by a certain amount,depending on the distance yu want to focus on.
We’ll be testing different optics to give maximum performances on a wide range of depth of fields.
As for the image resolution and quality,the onboard Rasberry Pi can shoot at different settings, WB and ISOs, depending on the scan time and desired result.