The product is called Shapify.me. It uses the motion sensors in a Microsoft Kinect to scan a customer’s full body, by taking information from eight different angles. Once a person gets the 3D image they like, an on-demand printing company called Sculpteo cranks out a statue about four inches high, which is shipped to the customer.
The company behind Shapify.me, a Russian firm called Artec Group, thinks this could me more than a home curiosity.
“This is exactly what people did in the early history of photography – they got dressed up and took pictures of themselves,” said Artem Yukhin, the company’s founder and chairman. “Now, people want to scan themselves, and make little statues of themselves.”
There is reason to think so. Artec makes most of its money from a sophisticated, 3D-scanning camera that costs $15,000 to $20,000, which it sells to businesses like animation, product design and plastic surgery. The company, which uses complex math in its camera, has been looking for ways to increase its popularity, and with that higher demand bring down its prices.
Then Mr. Yukhin heard about a man in Japan who was using the camera to make statues of people. There was another in Germany, it turned out, and in England. “I was an evangelist of 3D, but I never thought it would come like this,” he said.
He and his colleagues hit on the early history of photography, which frequently included people dressing and sitting for formal portraits. That business grew through small-scale entrepreneurs, working from studios or traveling around with their equipment. Could the same thing happen again?
In fact, it already has, with stores that sell 3D faces. Many more such approaches will be at a 3D printing show in New York this week.
The breakthrough for Artec was using the Kinect, which it sees as a way to attract entrepreneurs.
“Algorithmically, it’s really different from what we’ve done before,” Mr. Yukhin said. “We had to learn how to correct for breathing, and small movements as a person turns.” He hopes to improve the process, and offer it to companies like Intel, which is producing its own 3D cameras for personal computers.
The idea now is to franchise the product, offering a loaded kit for $1,000 that small businessmen can set up in malls. They get some of that back as a credit, Mr. Yukhin said. Each statue has a recommended price of $99, which is split between Artec and Sculpteo. That’s more than the $59 Shapify.me charges, but using Shapify requires a Kinect. Plus, it seems that many people still need professional help scanning themselves.
Compared with the Japanese product, which is made with a better camera and cost about $150 for a comparable figurine, Shapify statues are pretty crude. But then, so were most early photos, and plenty of people immortalized themselves that way.
In another effort to promote the concept, Artec is opening its own store in Palo Alto, Calif. where the technorati can conveniently become tiny figures. If it catches, Mr. Yukhin hopes to sell software for mass statue-making, and build up demand for his more expensive professional camera.
“People will be scanning weddings, sports events, making statues of everything,” said Mr. Yukhin, a visibly enthusiastic mathematician. “Even when the tools aren’t good, the demand is high. In five years, 3D cameras will be on cellphones. It will get popular even faster than photography did.”
Source: NY Times;
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