Rubicon is the third player in a consumer, rotational 3D laser scanner segment mostly dominated by MakerBot’s Digitizer and Matterform’s Matter and Form systems. Neither one has yet established a significant installed base, so the dynamics are still fluid enough for new players to enter the market.
We first told you about the Rubicon 3D scanner during its crowd-funding campaign, which has since been successful both on Indiegogo and Kickstarter, where it raised over $100.000 dollars combined. Now, Rubitech, the Lithuanian company behind the scanner, is getting ready to launch a new, portable model, of which 3DPI can exclusively bring you the first photos, thanks to our new friends at the Rubicon Italia Team.
Rubitech recently formed a partnership with a team of makers in Italy that is working with local FabLabs and is managing all aspects of marketing, distribution, and sales assistance for Rubicon 3D Scanners. The Rubicon desktop – available in Italy for 499 euro – is a desktop system which uses two small lasers to acquire data on the shape of the object and a central image sensor to acquire texture data, taking photos only when necessary and not continuously.
The portable systems will integrate a miniaturized version of the same technology in a handheld enclosure. All captured information is processed by an FPGA chip, an integrated circuit configured by Rubitech electronic engineers. The Rubicon system is also able to maintain a prolonged exposure, thus achieving optimal results even with limited luminosity.
There are still no details as to the possible price or the release date of the new 3D scanner, which will enter a segment where it is going to face off with 3D Systems’ $400 (Kinect-based) Sense Scanner, the $379 Structure Sensor (iPad sold separately), the $1,000 Fuel3D Scanify, and Artec’s structured light EVA system, starting at around $12.000. The affordable and efficient capturing of 3D images is still a very open consumer tech market, in the early phases of its development, but it is going to be huge. Rubicon has chosen the right time to take a shot at it.
