This looks great! I'd like to use it to ease up the tech overhead for some mobile robotics applications. Is there anyway that the user's position in the world frame can be accessed? i.e. can this do SLAM over longish distances?

Basically I'm looking for Google's Project Tango, without the hardware constraints.

Sure, the pose in the world frame is estimated at 30 Hz. Over longish distances there's some drift so a global optimization step is needed.

I'd like to release a developer API (Forge currently runs on Android, Windows & Linux) hopefully later this year, which should be what you're looking for.

Also, I worked in mobile robotics at Willow Garage a few years ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aqghgoeCWk), so I'm keen to see Forge used in robotics.

Neat. Looking forward to it.

Hook it up to a GPS at the same time?

Is it possible to use a Leap Motion? I don't think it has a video camera in it, but could it still be used to do 3D scanning?

My understanding is the Leap Motion is a wide-angle stereo IR camera. It's built to detect fingers/hands/pointers, and doesn't produce a depth map so can't do 3D scanning.

A sensor with a similar form factor is the CamBoard pico, which does produce depth maps. I don't think it's shipping yet.

http://www.pmdtec.com/products_services/reference_design_pic...