FastRBF plug-in for FastSCAN laser scanner

Scan it, build it - the complete rapid prototyping solution

ARANZ's surface modelling research has been developed into a customised plug-in for the Polhemus FastSCAN laser scanner. With FastRBFTM the Polhemus FastSCAN now offers the complete rapid prototyping solution in a single package. FastRBFTM's automatic hole-filling and its smooth extrapolation of incomplete surface data saves many hours otherwise spent laboriously repairing holes and defects in scans. All this is done without compromising the high detail of the original scan. FastRBF, however, also offers advanced smoothing and noise rejection techniques along with sophisticated mesh simplification that exploits the unique mathematical function that FastRBF uses to model the scan data. Consequently, surfaces simplified with FastRBF are more faithful to the raw scan data than other traditional methods. The FastRBF plug-in also guarantees that a water tight manifold surface is exported from the scanner - an essential consideration for rapid prototyping and a unique capability in a laser scanner. Until now this has been a difficult problem in its self. With FastRBF all this capability is now available to the user at the time of acquisition.



Raw FastSCAN data

FastRBFTM automatic watertight model. Fine mesh (105,000 faces)

Mesh after FastRBF simplification (29,000 faces)

This example demonstrates FastRBFTM hole filling, surface extrapolation and mesh simplification in order to create a watertight model suitable for manufacture by rapid prototyping. The complete task is solved within the scanner software at the time of acquisition. FastRBF is used to create a smooth watertight surface from the raw laser scan data of the bust scanned above. Holes are automatically filled and the surface smoothly extrapolated to a user-defined bounding box (middle). The very fine mesh derived from the Radial Basis Function (middle) was then simplified prior to exporting, while still maintaining the high detail of the original scan.

The FastRBF extensions offer key scanning improvements:

  • Automatic hole filling
  • Smooth extrapolation of surfaces
  • Mesh simplification while preserving scan detail
  • Closed watertight meshes guaranteed
  • Meshes characterised by more uniform triangles
  • Low pass filtering (smoothing) of scans
  • Error-bar fitting for noisy data - just specify a fitting tolerance

Automatic hole filling example

Small holes in raw scan data (below left) are easily repaired while large gaps between the two embracing figures are smoothly interpolated. This is achieved while preserving the complex topology of the statue (i.e. the spaces between the arms, head and torso are preserved).

  • Further FastSCAN examples can be found on the point cloud fitting page
  • Examples of scans processed with FastRBF can be downloaded from our Samples directory.
  • FastSCAN extensions are available now. Contact Polhemus for purchasing and further information.


Raw FastSCAN mesh (approximately 600mm tall)

Scan after processing with FastRBF.
Small holes are repaired and occluded regions smoothly interpolated automatically.