3D systems – new tool or Emperor’s new clothes?

There’s a lot of activity right now in the field of 3D vision. A couple of companies (SICK/IVP and AT) have brought out systems based on triangulation while other start-up businesses are trying to develop other techniques such as “shape from shading”, (go to the bottom of this link for more details).

But here’s my question: is this a case of engineers coming up with a product “because they can” and “it’s really cool”, or is there a market for 3D vision systems?

My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that the number of problems that really need a 3D solution is very small. I predict that SICK and AT will have small but steady sales but the other methods will vanish like snow on a Michigan sidewalk. That said, I’m sure some of the companies will do quite nicely on DoD funding for a few years.