A German company is allowing people to get a 3-D selfie - a detailed, four-inch figurine of their body - for a sum of USD 95.
Making one of these figurines requires a massive pile of hardware and software: 54 DSLRs, 54 lenses, a complex 3-D modelling pipeline, a USD 80,000 full-colour 3-D 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.
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 18-megapixel images through the company's proprietary software, which creates a 3-D model of the subject.
The company operates three high-end 3-D 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.
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 USD 75,000.
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