Hello
I would like to be able to scan small (15mm-60mm) highly reflective minerals, crystals, and gems including capturing their color/texture. For example a clear quartz crystal, or a piece of calcite crystal, or a piece of galena. All of these are either clear or metalic with very fine details. Would the THREE be able to pull that off? Thanks for the help!
Hi Wayne,
I think the short answer is, not likely, and you might find this is difficult with any scanner.
This is because all scanners have trouble scanning objects that are reflective to the wavelength they are using. For the THREE, anything mirror like, or translucent, in normal white light is going to be a problem. So in order to capture the geometry of the object, it needs to be coated with a non reflective material (like scan spray), which will cover up the color.
This is unfortunately true for most scanners.
Even if the scanner could capture without scan spray, the texture of the object is itself a problem. I'm simplifying here, but texturing works by painting (projecting) the picture of the object onto the geometry. But with shiny things (or translucent things), that picture moves with respect to where you took it from. For example, imagine taking a picture of a mirror. Now imagine painting the picture you took onto the mirror. Afterwards, the mirror would just look like a poster, flat and unconvincing in 3D.
I hope this sheds some light into the challenges.
Seconding what Drew said. You *could* also try the Aesub Transparent spray that will dull the reflectivity but still let some color through. I think that would be your best bet with any scanner, not just the THREE. It's not a surefire solution, but outside of photogrammetry with a polarized light/lens filter, I don't know of anything else to get the results you're looking for.
