Q&A: Artec 3D CEO talks 15 years of 3D scanning, 3D metrology and applications

For TCT Magazine's annual 3D scanning focus, Artyom Yukhin, Artec 3D CEO reflected on 15 years of scanning technology advances, the applications that inspire him most, and the importance of embedding 3D scanning and metrology solutions throughout end-to-end manufacturing processes.

TCT: Artyom, you’ve led Artec 3D for the last 15 years. Can you recall what the technology landscape was like when you founded the company and the gap you sought to fill with the company?

AY: Artec began as a typical start-up in San Diego, California in 2007. The impetus for the company was simple - we wanted to make 3D scanning technology as accessible and easy-to-use as a home video camera or a smartphone.

Everything on the market at that time was bulky and involved multiple cameras, various moving lasers, intricate magnetic fields, or other complex setups. We wanted to deliver simplicity and ease, without sacrificing precision. We created the first-ever handheld 3D scanner that worked as a standalone device.

By the end of 2008, we already had a working prototype and immediately began sales. The first Artec device broke even almost immediately and within less than a year, we had $1M in sales. Our success story is an unusual one without a venture capitalist backing us. But our business model worked which is not typical for a hardware company. We were able to manufacture the product as well as write the software and run R&D as we went.

TCT: How has it changed in that time?

AY: The last 15 years have given us opportunities to solve a lot of technological challenges. We’ve introduced new business models, made a lot of breakthroughs, and invested in a lot of R&D.

When we launched the Artec Leo in 2019, we felt we’d finally achieved our initial goal of creating a handheld scanner that was as user-friendly as a smartphone – a device anyone could pick it up and put to use without complex training.

One of the biggest success points with the launch of Leo was its ability to process everything in real time. Leo has a feedback loop in the form of a touchscreen integrated into the scanner itself. That was ground-breaking at the time. Previously, scanners behaved like film cameras; you captured an object blindly and had to wait until the frames were processed in the lab to see if the scan was successful. Introducing Leo to the world of 3D scanners felt a lot like introducing the first digital camera in a world of film cameras, and it revolutionised the industry.

This design enables a user to scan, pause, stop, and rotate the object on a touchscreen to re-evaluate the quality of your scan before resuming. The Leo's algorithm understands how to compute the data and does all the work automatically.

Because the Leo is wireless, battery-powered, light, manoeuvrable, and zero-contact, applications for use have expanded into various fields such as within criminology, archaeology, palaeontology, and medicine. It even contains its own WiFi, enabling scans to be uploaded into Artec Cloud to finetune at a later time, also making it possible to use the device in remote locations.

Because it is intuitive, feedback-based, and straightforward, it is accessible to different professionals without in-depth training. It could be given it to a member of the police who isn’t a technical specialist, and they’d be able to use it to capture critical data at a crime scene. Or given to a nurse to scan a limb to fit a prosthetic without requiring time-consuming training. We’d finally reached our goal of making 3D scanning pervasive.

TCT: Are there any application stories you can share with us where a customer’s novel use of 3D scanning has surprised you?

AY: It’s difficult to select just one application that’s surprised me most. Each year, we hold a conference with Artec partners and resellers from all over the world. We dedicate a full day of this conference to hearing the many interesting ways our clients have used our scanners.

Every time, each of us is sitting there with our jaws dropped and tears in our eyes. We hear the most incredible stories which all are touching in their own way. What touches me most of all is when it there is some significant social impact. There are three directions that excite me the most.

Science/education. When our technology allows an advancement of science and scientists. There are so many examples of this. In one case, a professor created a VR course of osteology during the pandemic. For many doctors or other specialists, it’s extremely difficult to learn effectively with 2D pictures alone. And since not all schools have access to physical bones to learn from, digitised 3D scans of them proved extremely useful.

Medicine. Because our scanners allow for the quick and easy capture of a physical data, they have been leveraged with great success in creating prosthetics for amputees. Our scanners are helping victims of the Azerbaijani-Armenian War to regain some semblance of normalcy by providing customised, 3D-informed prosthetics for those who have been inflicted with life-altering injuries. Due to Armenia’s poorly developed infrastructure and lack of quality healthcare, many survivors are faced to live with subpar solutions, including poorly fitted prosthetics. Artec 3D’s technology quickly captures measurements of a victim’s limb and allows for an accurate, comfortable prosthetic to be 3D printed and personalised for the user. The social impact of these use cases is very visual and we can see happy people and reduce the amount of pain they feel with standard, ill-fitting prosthetics.

Forensics/crime & justice. In Japan, the government bought Leo scanners for all their police departments to scan suspects, compare them with mugshots, register them with CCTV, and narrow down their identities. The 3D scans, as opposed to traditional mugshots, allow a rendering of different angles to compare them with CCTV imaging to help find suspects and prove culpability. Now there is a plan to equip every police car and dispatch team with Artec Leos for fast crime scene scanning and evidence collection, and for arrest booking as well.

TCT: 3D scanning of course isn’t just about digitising physical products but it’s also a necessary manufacturing tool for recording accuracy, reverse engineering projects, for example. Can you talk about the importance of embedding 3D scanning technologies into end-to-end manufacturing processes?

AY: There are crucial applications of 3D scanning technology within manufacturing processes. One example is additive manufacturing. You scan an object being built and use those scans to 3D print parts that fit seamlessly into the base structure.

For damaged parts or products, applying the 3D-scan-and-print method means you only need to reproduce the damaged area rather than replace the entire part and waste the functional parts of it. This process is much more sustainable than traditional methods which involve conveyors, an overproduction of spare parts, and unnecessary waste due to trimmings or material excess. This enables completely new workflows that are economically and environmentally sustainable.

Another application is quality control. 3D scanning provides a faster, more accurate method of ensuring products are up to par throughout every stage of the manufacturing process. Accurately identifying imperfections via 3D scanning early on saves time and costs further along the processing supply chain.

TCT: With that in mind, last year, you introduced the Artec 3D Metrology Kit, which is being shown in some huge, heavy industry projects. What’s the sweet spot for this technology?

AY: Our Metrology Kit is essentially a high-tech measuring system for high-precision industrial applications. The applications include anything from deformation analysis to testing to inspection. The Kit is flexible enough to integrate into a user’s workflow, delivers perfect results both in you’re a workshop and outdoors, and is compatible with major software like Control X and PolyWorks.

It can operate as a standalone optical measurement solution, or as a referencing tool for even higher 3D scanning accuracy over distance. Using the Metrology Kit plugin, you get the entire 3D scanning and photogrammetry workflow right inside Artec Studio. This is an excellent solution for scanning large objects – say, a helicopter or a car – when you need to accelerate the process without sacrificing quality or precision. That’s really the sweet spot for this technology: as a complementary tool for the Leo or other scanners, helping users make digital twins of big objects much faster than either tool alone.

TCT: Where does 3D scanning technology go next? What’s next for Artec 3D?

AY: Artec 3D is on the cutting edge of 3D scanning technology since it was founded and is committed to continuing to explore new solutions to benefit society. We regularly update our software and offerings, and we continually invest in R&D to ensure we’re delivering the most innovative solutions to the market which can be used for a variety of applications.

One area we see the industry leaning more into is artificial intelligence. Applying AI is key in processing and interpreting the data a scanner collects, and Artec is fortunate to have had a very strong AI team from the beginning. We helped Apple to create their proprietary Face ID technology , so we’ve been on the turning point of AI technology from the get-go.

Artec 3D is committed to making its technology ever-more pervasive in fields that can benefit from reliable, easy-to-use, yet still ultra-precise scanning. We collaborate with organisations that use our scanners to help people – whether that be in the form of life-changing prosthetics, crime reduction and prevention, or accessible education. We look forward to continuing this work and seeing how 3D scanning continues to open up endless opportunities in the realms of science, history, medicine, archaeology, and sustainability.