3D scanning usually requires one of those clunky devices, but not anymore. A startup has created the "Structure Scanner", a diminutive 3D scanner that can hook onto your iPad, allowing you to capture 3D information around you.

It launches today on Kickstarter and is the brainchild of Occipital. The is the company's first piece of hardware, so they've enlisted product design experts New Deal Design to come up with something practical and cool looking. New Deal Design is the studio behind Lytro and FitBit.

Structure Sensor is designed to bridge that gap. It's powerful enough to capture precise real-world information, but sensitive enough that you can use it to play augmented reality games using your iPad.



"We wanted to start working [on] an augmented reality game engine that finally delivered a seamless blend of virtual objects and the physical world," the designers explain. "But there was a problem. We had reached a limit with the existing sensors in our mobile devices. Instead of waiting for someone else to create that sensor, we turned ourselves into a hardware company to create the Structure Sensor."

Occipital will be releasing an SDK with the device and allow developers to leverage on the 3D sensor in iOS.



For a $349 pledge, you'll get the Structure Sensor with iPad bracket, Lightning cable and power supply, or with iPad bracket USB hacker cable and power supply (there's also a $329 early bird special).

You can even use it with other mobile devices too instead of just the iPad. Check out the video of how it works below: [Kickstarter]