ComplexScan

Hello! My name is Vladimir Matiasevich, and I work in R&D in the field of hardware, software, and AI solutions.

Today, I will tell you the story of creating ComplexScan — a series of professional equipment designed for photogrammetric 3D scanning, 360-degree photography, and high-speed product shooting for catalogs.

ComplexScan marked a new stage for me after developing PhotoPizza. My task was to create an even more advanced system for professionals that would allow the fast and high-quality creation of digital copies of any objects.

The Challenge and the Solution

A professional photographer's work involves two important and closely related stages:

• Shooting
• Subsequent processing and retouching

The higher and more stable the quality of the initial photographs, the less effort and time is needed to prepare the final result. If your shoots are industrialized, the dependence of the overall process's efficiency on the quality of the originals can be colossal. This dependence can have a significant financial impact.

Consequently, my objective was to create a solution that maximally simplifies the process of subsequent retouching.

What is needed for this?

• Elimination of unwanted shadows and glare on surfaces
• High-quality consistent lighting, the ability to create various lighting profiles
• Precise and very smooth drive, in case of using mechanical automation
• Overall stability of the drive's construction
• Compatibility with other studio equipment

The solution was to create a photo table with a transparent rotating disc made of special tempered glass. This allowed for the arrangement of light sources in the necessary configuration, ensuring even lighting across all surfaces, which significantly reduced costs on post-processing and improved the quality of the final images.

ComplexScan V1D1000 Transparent

ComplexScan V2D1000 Transparent

Shooting Without a Photographer. Is It Possible?

Now, let's move to the next level. What if we completely eliminate the expensive manual skilled work from the process and additionally automate it, including studio preparation and equipment setup for each individual object?

Let’s refine and formalize the task. We were approached by a company that imports expensive wines. They needed a streamlined process for preparing photo materials for their website and printed catalog.

The main challenge in photographing glass bottles is creating the correct glare map. Additionally, bottles can vary in volume and height, often requiring scene rearrangement. There’s also a significant logistical issue: bottles need to be delivered to the shooting location, or shoots must be organized directly at the warehouse.

As a result, the requirements for the equipment were as follows:

• A fully isolated shooting area from external light sources
• Compactness and quick setup: equipment must be easily transportable between shooting locations
• Automatic creation of a lighting profile (LED Matrix), quick selection between several profiles
• Ability to adjust glare profiles (LED Matrix), choice between several presets
• No flicker in light sources (additional filters in power units)
• Adjustable color temperature
• Convenient visual monitoring of the process: high-quality display of the scene status on a large external screen
• Drive for positioning the camera in space and lens adjustments for automatic shot composition
• High speed working with batches of objects

All these tasks were solved in the ComplexScan Box B1 model. Now, from the moment a bottle is placed in the shooting zone to the arrival of the photograph in the electronic catalog takes only one minute: 

In the Next Article

In the next article, I will tell you about СomplexScan AUTOBOX v1 — equipment designed for 3D scanning and photogrammetry.