Hello,
I´m using a 3D scanner setup with something based on Kinect tech but higher resolution.
The sensor I´m using is a Primesense Carmine 1.09 with Skanect software and it delivers me printable objects within a few minutes. Skanect is great since it has finishing tools inside like making the scan watertight, plane cuts to remove background noise, etc etc. Also you can export full color scans with this and send it off to your full color 3d printing service.
In order to get an even higher resolution output from the sensor I´ve put a +2.5 strong reading glasses on top of it, the amount of detail is crazy with this. This also works for the Kinect but still doesn't deliver the same results as with the carmine with glasses.
The software itself works best with a high end video card with lots of CUDA cores on it, but it's not fully needed. Since the last version (1.3) there is also the option to use CPU instead of GPU to reconstruct the scan. You won't get a good feedback during scanning, but it will record and reconstruct it on a slower pace later on.
This is how I use the sensor:
http://www.phuntec.com/images/3dscanner.jpg
Mounted with some printed feet on the backside of my laptop screen and with it´s glasses on it looks intelligent, right ?
Like this it allows me to walk around a person or object to scan it, planecut, reconstruct, watertight, and withing minutes I have a ready to be printed file.
This is a result a user on the Skanect forums posted:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-T8bXTsHdv5c/UU2mB3lDQ6I/AAAAAAAAAJY/wyCGyWZIUzc/s1600/me.hirez.primesense.with.glasses.jpg
it´s a very small investment for this setup and delivers really great results.
Primesense Carmine 1.09 : 200$ http://www.primesense.com/solutions/sensor/
Skanect : 99€ for a commercial license. http://skanect.manctl.com