麻省理工学院的研究使用了Kinect扫描仪使芝加哥现场博物馆展出的著名的T. Rex化石永生。被称为苏（Sue），巨大的骨骼的下巴太大了，对于一组法医牙医的牙科扫描仪，无法分析，因此与MIT的Camera Cultent Group联系，以与Kinect开发新的扫描系统。
苏是有史以来发现的最大，最完整，最广泛的霸王龙。该骨骼在1990年被同名苏·亨德里克森（Sue Hendrickson）发现，一直是其在下巴中奇特的漏洞的主题。然而，没有什么具体的决定是什么引起了异常标记。通过3D扫描苏的下巴，法医牙医希望终于躺着裸露的骨头。
该论文结合了两名麻省理工学院研究人员和两名法医牙医已发表在PLOS ONE，经过同行评审的开放访问日记。
挑选的骨头
Originally it was believed the holes were a result of a bite from another dinosaur but this was refuted by others with the belief they were the result of a protozoal infection. However, the research’s 3D scans may suggest neither of these hypotheses are correct.MIT News explains这些孔似乎太不一致了，以至于从外面的咬合和锥度导致孔，这意味着它们不太可能是由感染引起的。
Inexpensive scanning
To accurately 3D scan Sue’s skull, MIT utilized a Microsoft Kinect v2. The inexpensive device was repurposed from its usual setting within the Xbox gaming family. By using the Kinect, the team were able to keep costs down which, as MIT research scientist Anshuman Das explains, was very important,
A lot of people will be able to start using this. That’s the message I want to send out to people who would generally be cut off from using technology — for example, paleontologists or museums that are on a very tight budget. There are so many other fields that could benefit from this.
与3D扫描仪一起，团队需要一台功能强大的笔记本电脑来处理图形处理。RAW 3D数据是使用Kinect软件开发套件捕获的Microsoft’s 3D Builderwas used to create the meshes. Free and open-source software MeshLab was then used to clean the files before storing them in .ply format. The paper explains Polygon File Format (.ply) was used “because of its capability to could capture the actual color of the scene along with the 3D reconstruction。”
3D printing Sue
研究团队后来将文件转换为.STL格式，以试图演示其用于生产准确3D打印模型的Kinect扫描技术。3D打印局Shapeways用于3D打印在EOS的PA 2200聚酰胺材料中。
The resultant 3D prints were compared to Sue’s measurements for accuracy and found an error range of 0.21–4.33% which was deemed “准确的重建。”
可访问的3D扫描
The project has shown many advantages such as the effectiveness of inexpensive 3D scans for use in paleontological research and the ability to accurately 3D print with the scans.
研究人员还指出，3D扫描技术在考古学等其他研究领域如何有用。由于考古发现经常是在偏远地区进行的，因此考古学家可以3D扫描对象，以便与其他研究人员合作，或者只是在数字上保留发现。预计3D扫描将很快变得更加易于访问移动3D扫描技术的扩展.
Commenting on the research, associate chair of paleontology at the Field Museum Peter Mackovicky believes “三维扫描确实彻底改变了古生物学。”
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Featured image shows a demonstration of the 3D scanning method with body mounted Kinect scanner. Photo via MIT.
