The standard photocopier works great on two-dimensional items, printed on paper and such. The problem comes when you want a print of something 3-D. Most photocopiers show only what is contacting the glass, the rest is a black, toner-wasting page.

This new photocopier would have a built-in digital camera that is pointed up through the object glass, and has a non-glare flash system. Simply press an option button, and a picture is taken, and printed with the laser print engine.

Note: ideal for photocopying body parts at rowdy office parties.
-- Cedar Park, Jul 14 2003

Picza 3d scanner http://www.spline.n...nes/piczapix30.html
3d scanner using a piezoelectric sensor. [zinguvok, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

ZCorp 3d printer http://zcorp.com/
3d printer device thing. pretty slick. [zinguvok, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Pentax Optio S http://www.pentax.co.uk/active_photo.htm
Choose digital, option S from the menu to see the details on my camera [goff, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Somewhat baked, though no known systems with a camera. As far as I know, it's *really* hard to perceive depth with a camera by means of an image-comprehension program.
-- zinguvok, Jul 14 2003


How would a photocopier represent the 3rd dimension?
-- phoenix, Jul 14 2003


My digital camera takes 3-D pictures. See link.
-- goff, Jul 14 2003


How I read this: a photocopier with the ability to image an object that may be beyond the plane of the glass. A photocopier that uses a more conventional camera instead of scanning the image bit by bit. Attempts at such would generally render a black/blank image with an ordinary photocopier. It would still render a 2D image.
-- half, Jul 14 2003


Quite a few reviews of computer scanners test whether they can image 3D objects.
-- DrCurry, Jul 14 2003


That would be a video camera, I think you'll find.
-- DrCurry, Jul 14 2003


[half] is right here. This is not a camera that would take a three-dimensional picture. This is a standard digital camera, that is mounted inside the imaging casing of a digital photocopier, that would allow you to switch to a digital picture instead of a xerox-type scan of the item placed on the document glass. The focal length of normal scanners and photocopiers is very short, and anything more that half an inch or so off the document glass ends up fuzzy.

I was thinking about how you might take a picture of a small auto part, or computer peripheral, and print it on paper. If the copier could do this in one step, instead of digital camera -> computer -> printer, then it would make cataloging small items more efficient.

On closer inspection of this idea, it occurs to me that this may be 'an X that does Y', so m-f-d if you must.
-- Cedar Park, Jul 14 2003



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