Filed under: News | Technology News

 

Trimensional App for iOS: Your $0.99 3D Scanner

You can put that extra $2999 towards buying a 3D printer.

May 18 2011, 7:07pm CDT | by

Trimensional App for iOS: Your $0.99 3D Scanner
 
 
 

If you want to build an accurate, 3-dimensional model of your face you'd better be prepared to drop around $3000 for a 3D Scanner with special software. And, again, that's just the scanner. If you want to actually print anything in 3D, you'll need to buy a dedicated printer too. Those have two price categories: under $20,000 and above $20,000.

3D printing will be well out of range for the average consumer for years to come. But cheap 3D scanning is already here. Grant Schindler of the Georgia Institute of Technology has invented an app called Trimensional (via GizMag). It uses the camera on your iPhone, iPad 2 or 4th generation iPod Touch to create full 3D models of whatever you want.

To use the app, you'll need to take it into a dark room and hit 'capture'. The app takes four pictures at slightly different angles and then builds one 3D image of the object. You'll be able to rotate the new scanned image and save it as a jpeg, animated GIF or QuickTime movie. You can also export it to a graphics program or a 3D printer. Not a bad deal for under a dollar. Watch the video demo below to see it in action.

This new app makes it pretty clear that the price of 3D scanning is about to take a sharp nosedive. But 3D printing will remain out of reach for some time to come. Until then, this app will be used primarily for entertainment. But it also has the opportunity to be useful in the medical field or for students with access to a university 3D printer. Now instead of waiting turns to use a 3D scanner, users would be able to do the scanning themselves and wirelessly email the images wherever.

Trimensional won't reach its true apex until somebody releases a follow-up app that lets you distort and modify those 3D images into custom works of "art". Who wouldn't want to make accurate 3D models of a buddies head and then twist it into some terrible, bug-eyed horned demon? Someone with the capital to afford a printer could even allow people to order 3D print jobs in-app for a nominal fee. Making bobbleheads would be easier than ever before.

Sponsored Update

Updates

Samsung nabs 95 percent of Android smartphone profits in Q1

Source: V3.co.uk

Samsung grabbed 95 percent of global smartphone profits in the first quarter of 2013, according to a study by Strategy Analytics. Strategy Analytics reports that Samsung made about $5bn in smartphone profits for the quarter. According to the stud ...
Full article at: V3.co.uk  More like this  6 hours ago, 6:41pm CDT

Predictive CRM startup [24]7 buys Shopalize

Source: Business Journal of Portland

TechFlash delivers technology news and trends from your city and beyond. Cromwell Schubarth is the Senior Technology Reporter at the Business Journal. His phone number is 408.299.1823. Predictive customer relationship soft ...
Full article at: Business Journal of Portland  More like this  6 hours ago, 6:38pm CDT

A soft-spoken Larry Page makes surprise appearance at Google I/O

Source: CIO.com

IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau) — Google CEO Larry Page made a surprise appearance Wednesday at the Google I/O conference, where he overcame problems with his throat to take questions from developers in the audience for almost an hour. Go ...
Full article at: CIO.com  More like this  7 hours ago, 6:18pm CDT

Watch all 2013 Superbowl ads

where to buy

Don't miss ...

 

<a href="/latest_stories/all/all/5" rel="author">Robert Evans</a>
The excitement about new smartphones, tablets and anything mobile drive Robert to unearth the latest rumors and developments in this fast moving space. He adopted 4G as soon as it become available and knows where the mobile market is going.
Robert can be contacted directly at robert@i4u.com.

 

 

blog comments powered by Disqus

Latest stories

Apple boasts 50 billion app downloads
Apple boasts 50 billion app downloads
Google might be sitting pretty with over 48 billion app downloads on its Google Play store, yet Apple wants everyone to know that it's App Store is still the king of the apps.
 
 
Google reveals new monthly music subscription service
Google reveals new monthly music subscription service
The rumors were true. Following the buzz that Google has signed licensing deals with giant recording companies, Google took to the stage at Google I/O to officially announce Google Play Music All Access, a new monthly...
 
 
Google announces Google Play game services
Google announces Google Play game services
Google I/O is like heaven for developers. Just today at the opening keynote, Google introduced Google Play game services, a set of services that aims to make games more social, with achievements, leaderboards, and...
 
 
Android reaches 900 million activations and 48 billion app downloads
 Google also revealed at the opening keynote of Google I/O that Android now has 900 million activations - a giant leap from last year's 400 million. Additionally, it announced that Android has so  far garnered...
 
 
 

More From the Web

Viral Stories

 
 

Viral Videos and Photos