Scanning the surface
According to Cyberware's Steve Adelman, the systems use helium-neon lasers from Melles Griot to scan an object. A cylindrical lens spreads the beam into a 300-mm-long plane of light. The light bounces off the object, which sits on a rotating pedestal. The light then passes through a filter to dispose of ambient light, and a 640 3 480-pixel charge-coupled device chip from Texas Instruments captures the coherent outline of the image.
Federici said a single object can take more than two hours to process, depending on its shape and the number of scans needed to capture every nook and cranny. The resulting digital file captures the object down to 0.1-mm resolution, saving the original piece for all time.
Scientists benefit as well, Federici said, because the digital file offers more accurate volume and distance measurements than those taken with mechanical means. "Plus, you can't ship these [fossils] around the world, but they can ship the data. Ten people can study it without having the original piece."
Dino-data like this have produced new insights into how muscle is connected to bones, revealing a clearer picture of dinosaur anatomy.