There are many useful applications for 3D printers, such as this $50 robotic hand for a 3-year-old boy.
But here’s probably the most useless 3D printing application ever, and, dammit, I wish I’d thought of it.
Dacuda and Volumental teamed up to create 3D printable selfies (watch the video below) that can be created using your smartphone or tablet and your 3D printer – or a 3D printing company if you don’t own one. CNBC explains:
“Users can take a picture using their smartphone or tablet, moving it from left to right in front of their face. This will create a 3D rendering of their face. They will then be able to send the picture to a 3D printing company and receive a 3D version of their face in the post.”
The app, expected to be released in the third quarter of 2015, is based on Dacuda’s SLAM Scan 3D engine that captures depth information in real-time using regular cameras. Taking multiple 3D images from Dacuda’s 3D engine and Volumental’s cloud-based reconstruction technology, the app renders a high-resolution 3D model of your face.
“We expect people won’t have a 3D printer quickly but we think the technology will become more affordable,” Alexander Ilic, founder of Dacuda, tells CNBC.
According to the companies, the app is compatible with iOS devices from the iPhone 5 and above and iPads. And it currently works on Android 5.0, but only on certain devices.
