So we promised the fun side of 3D as well and this is about as fun as it gets. We’re located in the greater Atlanta area, not so far away from Augusta, GA. Augusta is home of Augusta National and the Masters. Last year the EA Sports Tiger Woods Golf series saw the debut of a playable Augusta National course. This was a huge deal and the closest millions will ever get to playing the course. So how did they make the course so realistic? With 3D laser scanning!

Here’s a great article called, “10 Days of Grace Brings Golf’s Church to the Masses” which describes the process. If you want to checkout the fruits of their labor and you happen to not own an XBox, PS3 Wii, you can walk the 3D rendered course on their Facebook app called Course View. It’ll give you a flavor of what is fluid and beautiful topography in the game (now if they’d just make Augusta playable for the disc golf mode, but that’s another blog). See the image below for a taste of the scan:

Here’s where things could get interesting in the future. Imagine being able to scan your high school stadium with your smartphone and import it into your favorite football game. Maybe you’ll scan your house or office as the environment for your favorite 3D shooter. Why not put your car into that racing game? Maybe your favorite local golf course will have itself scanned so you can play it. The possibilities are endless. Like any technology, what is 10 days and expensive today at Augusta will no doubt be seconds in a smartphone in your home in the future. I’ll start by lobbying one of my favorite courses, Winagamie in Neenah, WI, to get scanned now!