Tuesday 17 February 2015

Now, pay $95 and get a 3D selfie

BERLIN: Want to up your selfie game? You can now get a 3D printed replica of yourself. A German company is allowing people to get a 3D selfie -- a detailed, four-inch figurine of their body -- for a sum of $95.

Making one of these figurines requires a massive pile of hardware and software: 54 DSLRs, 54 lenses, a complex 3D modelling pipeline, a $80,000 full-colour 3D printer, and a room-size scanning booth.

The Dusseldorf-based company DOOB 3D has four 3-D scanning booths in different locations throughout the world. One is in Dusseldorf, one in Tokyo, another at Santa Monica Place in Los Angeles, and one in New York City's Chelsea Market.

The company said they are set to add more US locations soon, 'Wired' reported.

Each Doob-licator is fitted with DSLRs, arranged in nine columns of six cameras each. A customer steps in, strikes a pose, and the booth operator fires all the cameras at once. That creates a full-body scan in a fraction of a second.

The next step involves feeding all those 18MP images through the company's proprietary software, which creates a 3D model of the subject. The company operates three high-end 3D printers to support its scanning operations.

The printing process takes a few hours for the smallest-size statue and half a day or more for the larger ones. It can take between two and eight weeks for a replica to arrive in the mail.

Users can also request a life-size replica. Depending on how big the person is -- and how many people are in the piece -- a life-size statue can cost up to $75,000.

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