About

Founded in January 2018, PalaeoPi is a University of Oxford spinout company that originated in the School of Archaeology and is supported by Oxford University Innovation in the city of Oxford, UK. PalaeoPi helps individuals and organisations to build high throughput 3D scanning capacity by providing personalised consultancy and our range of imaging products.

Our primary product is the TablePi2 (available here), an automated photogrammetry turntable designed to aid in the digitisation of small to medium-sized objects and Powered by Raspberry Pi.  The TablePi2 can pilot one, two or three cameras simultaneously and is capable of capturing and downloading over 100 24MP RAW images in less than 5 minutes, allowing people doing photogrammetry to significantly ramp up their scanning capacity.

The TablePi began its journey in the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, as a solution to automate the time-consuming process of capturing photographs to construct 3D models of archaeological specimens. From its origins as a prototype composed of LEGO Technic elements and 3D printing parts, the TablePi emerged as a formidable and versatile machine, proudly ‘Powered By Raspberry Pi’. Minimalist in appearance, the TablePi’s elegant lines mask the powerful software at its core, which enables it to automatically pilot thousands of digital camera models, up to three at once, straight out of the box. 

Today, the TablePi has evolved beyond its archaeological origins to become a flexible tool used by universities, museums, forensics specialists and more. TablePi has streamlined the photogrammetry process, making quick work of a task that would otherwise take many hours to complete. Its functionality and portability have made the TablePi a preferred tool for industries where precision and reliability are essential, with applications across multiple disciplines. 

What our Customers are saying

“The turntable was very easy to set up and use, it worked with an old Canon camera I had straight out of the box”

Dr Paul Wilson Warwick University

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“A very useful addition to mass digitisation workflows!”

Mr John Peterson University of Liverpool

became available for pre-order in the summer of 2022.

Company Ethos

At PalaeoPi we do things differently from our competitors. Due to our small size and origins within the archaeological research community, we reinvest the majority of our profits into research & development. Our primary goal is to open up high quality, research-grade lower cost 3D scanning and digitisation techniques to a broader user base. Our secondary goal is providing our customers with long term support including the right to repair and backwards compatibility of hardware and software.

Our products are primarily geared toward the heritage and university sectors, but they are also applicable to fields such as game development, forensic reconstruction, and engineering.