The World of 3D Portraiture 63
An anonymous reader writes in with this BBC story about the niche market of 3D printed "selfie" models. By now we're familiar with tales of 3D-printed marvels, from guns to duck prosthetics. But when I traveled to a physics conference in March, I wasn't expecting to end up with a full colour printout of myself. However, at a small stall that popped up on Industry Day at the American Physical Society's March meeting — that is precisely the service that was being offered. I stepped on to a little rotating platform, tried to stand still for a few awkward minutes while a camera scanned me up and down, and then filled out a form. A few weeks later, a box has arrived in the post. Somewhere inside it, my two-inch twin is waiting for me to overcome my trepidation and show him the light of day. But I'm in no hurry; it all seems a bit... odd. The box sits on my desk for several days. Even though getting 'printed' puts me in the illustrious company of Barack Obama and Richard III, I'm unsure about my decision. What, I wonder, does someone do with a small selfie in statue form? Where does this business find its customers?
With the opening... (Score:2)
to a Twilight Zone episode?
Fricking physicists mucking around in god's domain
Re: (Score:2)
Don't know why you think it's God's domain. The article doesn't pretend that they are alive. It's not any different than the G.I. Joe dolls or even the merchandise Hollywood puts out resembling movie characters.
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to a Twilight Zone episode?
I think it is the author of TFA that is in the twilight zone. The notion that this service will lack customers is absurd. A few years ago, there was a booth making cheap 3D wax head models at the Circus-Circus in Las Vegas. There was a long line of people waiting for their turn. My kids each got one.
What do people do with 2 inch twins, Easy! (Score:4, Funny)
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To busy/squeamish for your "complementary" medicine appointment?
Two words: Voodoo acupuncure.
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"Selfie" (Score:2, Insightful)
Is a "selfie" now... any representation of a person? Or does everyone want to use that word as much as possible because trendy? :(
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does a guy who by chance gets a printed mini-me and uses the word selfie incorrectly in a clickbait article, poses a question to get comments, use that word incorrectly? sure does.
he didn't do the scan. he didn't do the printing. so how is it a scan? now if he had actually made an article about buying/rigging up a full color scanner and getting a full color 3d printer, mcor or whatever, then yeah it would have been quite a cool article.
now it just looks like he's posing as stupid for the sake of creating di
Proof of concept (Score:5, Insightful)
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...shoving your penis into a container of glop and trying to hold perfectly still while maintaining a constant erection for 2-3 minutes...
^____^ That's my fetish!
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I'd rather give her one scaled to 80%. That way when she gets "the real thing" it's so much better.
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Of course, guys being guys, most will be tempted to make a 150% scale model instead...
That's a big fist.
vanity (Score:1)
Never underestimate people's vanity... utility is meaningless.
That said... might be nice to have a personalized chess set with the selfie as king, spouse as queen... etc.... shut up and take my money!
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James May out of Top Gear did a program where he reproduced a model aircraft kit at life size, and had the pilot figure made with his face. An acceptable bit of vanity, I think.
If I still did Warhammer Battle, I might like my general figure to be me. I can't sculpt faces well enough.
Apart from that ... mementoes of the kids for granny?
It's just a tactile photo - what's the problem? (Score:2)
Did people have the same dilemma with developed photos when they were first becoming widespread? You put it on your mantle beside the family portrait. You give it to a loved one. Give it to a blind friend in wallet size.
When my mother in law first heard about 3D printers and this type of technology, she wanted to run out and buy a 3D printer so she could make a family 'portrait' of statuettes. She still doesn't understand that she also needs a 3D scanner, not just a 3D printer...
Wedding Toppers (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the early startups were going after the wedding topper market. Those are the decorations on the top of the cake that have often been in the form of little bride and groom dolls. Now those dolls can be actual replicas of the bride and groom.
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Ugh, I find those tacky enough without even being the actual replicas of the bride and groom.
Well... (Score:2)
Well, what would you do with a photo of yourself? Where's the difference?
I heard there are even whole familys having their likenesses captured in awkward situations and sent it out to friends and family. especially around Christmas time. 2D, 3D where's the difference?
Breathtaking. (Score:2)
I shall call him...Mini-Me.
testing phase (Score:1)
Faces and bodies are one of the best ways to test the input and output of these technologies and puts it out there for anyone with eyes to judge. Those people tot scan and print are more likely to positively promote you if you involve them.
Wow. That was hard. So what's the actual meat to this article?
I Want It (Score:1)
Not for mini models, but for health. Just like those people who take pictures of their face for years, I want full body scans every day for years. It'd be interesting to see how I've changed and it might give you a heads up for things like bad posture and unnoticed moles (which could turn cancerous). Ever wanted to know when that wrinkle developed or when that stretch mark appeared? How about your hair growth rate? Software should be able to calculate that without requiring you to measure it daily.
We
All purpose cult cat girl goes Hello Kitty. (Score:1)
> Where does this business find its customers?
Japan. There, PVC figurines of various comic book (anime / manga) characters are super collectible and not cheap by any measure. (Most of them are of schoolgirl superhero(ine)s in various state of skimpy miniskirt outfits, cat ears and other weirdness usually described as ecchi / hentai.)
Cosplaying is also a national hobby in Japan, that is people dress as whatever anime figure they fancy and compete who's attire is best at festivals like the half-million vis
No longer anatomically impossible. (Score:2)
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Ummm, action figure, duh (Score:2)
Advancements needed (Score:4, Funny)
1) Ability to print life size
2) Ability to print with a jointed endoskeleton and soft, skin-like silicone body around endoskeleton
3) Ability to generate 3D model from 2D photos (especially extreme telephoto photos)
4) Shame-free "plain brown wrapper" shipping option
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Ability to moderate
-1 extremely creepy...
I think it's more about having a 3D digital scan (Score:2)
There's a kickstarter right now doing full 3D scans of people and they seem to think that the primary market will be people who want a fully digital version of themselves for video games and other virtual environments. They do have various "3D portraits" available, but I get the impression they think their biggest business will be just providing the data files from the scans.
https://www.kickstarter.com/pr... [kickstarter.com]
Simple. (Score:2)
The Big Bang Theory already did this (Score:2)
Howard and Raj use the 3d printer they bought to create both a whistle and plastic dolls of Howard and Bernadette:
Link [youtube.com]
Just put an ad in "Self" magazine. (Score:2)
>> Where does this business find its customers?
Just put an ad in "Self" magazine. Or figure out who the hell is buying selfie sticks and advertise next to those.
How do they paint them? (Score:2)
How are they painting them? Is that why it takes 2 weeks?
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Is that why it takes 2 weeks?
As far as I know, it takes 2 weeks to clean up the errors from the scan. 3d scanning is super glitchly right now and it takes a lot of work to manually clean them up. That's what I noticed when I went in to get 3d scanned. The raw scan had tons of polys in the wrong places
Scans of your kids (Score:1)
One of the biggest uses for stuff like this is to make models of your children and grand parents, even children WITH grandparents. They make great gifts. This scanner here uses depth scanners like a kinect but I built one with 104 cameras and it uses photogrammetry instead. The results are pretty good. So good that I and a partner setup shop in Massachusetts making models just for this purpose... You can browse some raw scans here:
shameless plug, I know I know.
www.sketchfab.com/EinsteinsWorkshop
The answer from 1995 (Score:2)
Put your name on it, then walk around with it in your pocket. Go about the world as you normally would.
When a friendly "kills" you, they will take it from you. After your respawn and get your gear from your corpse, you have to track down that person and negotiate for your ear, err, "3D printed selfie".
Some possibilities (Score:2)
Send a likeness of your kids to your parents so the grandparents can see what their grandchildren look like in 3D. Yes, a photograph would do just as well, but there will be some who prefer the 3D representation.
Grandparents can send their likeness to their grandchildren so that even if the grandkids don't see their grandparents often, they'll still know what they look like.
Cosmetic surgeons can print out a "before" statue, make some changes to the model, and print out an "after" statue to give clients a ch
I Love Lucy Statue (Score:1)
I think this is how the "sculptor" created the statue of Lucille Ball that's been in the news lately. (http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/04/travel/lucille-ball-statue-feat/)
He dug up her corpse, scanned it, and "Voila!!"
RPG Mini (Score:2)