I’ve gotten more and more into 3D scanning and printing of late. The Sony 3DCreator app for the XZ Premium started me off, now I’ve found something a little more accurate – Qlone (pronounced Clone), which will scan objects, then render them in Augmented Reality using Google’s ARCore tech.
The Qlone app has been available on iOS for some time, but they’ve just opened it up to devices supporting Google’s ARCore – so, Pixel/Pixel 2 and Galaxy S8/Note 8 devices – newly announced devices which support ARCore like the LG V30 aren’t supported at the moment, but should come soon.
The app release for Android is fairly basic with EyeCue Vision Technologies, the company who develops it promising more updates to the app to add missing features and make it available on more devices in the coming weeks.
At the moment there’s limited sharing options. In theory you’ll be able to share the objects you scan as a 3D file (OBJ, STL, PLY, X3D) you can print or manipulate for a fee, but for now you can simply share it as a GIF, or as an Augmented Reality object that you can place anywhere and zoom in/out from and walk around to check it out.
To start scanning you’ll need the app first, then you’ll have to download and print a proprietary mat from their website then place the object you want to scan on it. When you fire up the app, just follow the instructions – or watch the intro video to get an idea of what you need to do.
Scanning is pretty easy, though if you’re serious a lazy Susan and an adjustable tripod may be a good investment. Still, you can get some darn good results out of it at the moment.
There’s options for High-Res and Hybrid Scans in the app, which make you slow down but also improve the quality of your scan. You can also choose to put your model on another angle to make it a little more accurate as well. The rendering of the 3D model is done in the app, so no cloud connection is required.
You can try it out for free now on Google Play if you have a compatible phone, but you’ll have to pay a bit when the updates to export 3D models arrives hopefully soon.
