Last week I covered the Doob Group and its Dooblicator (trans)portable photogrammetric 3D scanner. Looking into the Dusseldorf based company’s activities I was shocked to find out they span across just a bout every possible application of 3D technologies (scanning, designing and printing) so, following up on my editor, Rachel’s prompt suggestion, I contacted the company to find out more and get some on the ground insight.
Mihail Tanev, Doob Group’s marketing manager immediately replied and put my in contact with Miki Devic, the company’s “volcanic” CMO, and we set up a conference call. My impression was that the Doob Group was involved in a lot of different activities.
I was wrong, they are actually doing a lot more than I could imagine. The reason a young, 65-people company is able to do so many things is that what they have developed is a system that simplifies the process of three-dimensionalization of the 2D and virtual contents the world has been creating up until this day. And the Dooblicator photogrammetric and transportable 3D scanner is just a logical consequence of this software ecosystem.
“The first difference from other companies that are just now getting involved in consumer 3D services is that we are not just jumping on the 3D printing hype train,” Devic tells me. “We have developed a ‘solution’, a platform approach based on powerful software and as many as 16 API’s to let our partners take advantage of every possibility offered by 3D technologies.”
Devic explained to me that this means that the Doob Group’s software systems can be used to turn 2D and physical content into digital 3D content, through software and 3D scanners, and then interface with any 3D printing technology, from 3D Systems’ to Voxeljet’s, to Makerbot’s and EOS’s. This entire platform can now be accessed through the Doob Group’s stores, which are popping up all over the world, from Dusseldorf to the very center of Tokyo, as well as through high profile partnerships such as the recent “Selfless Selfie Project” with UNIQLO or with popular German rapper CRO.
However one of the biggest new areas of development is and it all began from six years ago: medical technology. In fact the circumstances are movie-worthy. “They had found a dead body in the woods somewhere outside Hamburg,” Devic remembers. “Initially they though it was the victim of a crime but it turns out it was a mummified corpse from almost 3,000 years ago. Although nobody at the time thought it could be done, we used our technology to reconstruct the body and create an accurate 3D model from the MRI data.”
The concept is based on the philosophy of “Mass Customization” explained by professor Joe Pine of the SmartCustomizationGroup at the MIT Media Lab and Living Labs Initiative, in his book, and on the research by professor Frank Piller, also in the MIT’s SmartCustomizationGroup. Piller is also Chair professor of management at the Technology & Innovation Management Group of RWTH Aachen University, Germany, one of Europe’s leading institutes of technology.
Today the Doob Group is capable of producing a bespoke medical product, including prostheses, ortheses and knee or ankle braces in as little as 96 hours, going from medical scan data to final 3D printed product. As much as this is probably the most important area of business development, the company is very much focused on the consumer and entertainment (emotional) aspects of 3D printing as well.
This is done through the Dooblicator 3D scanner, which is the first hardware ever developed by the company and it was build as a natural extension of its platform approach. The system is not for sale: it is used in the Doob Group’s and its partner stores for advanced promotional activities, an area that – as Miki made abundantly clear – is literally taking off. Doob Group has made as many as 10,000 “Doobs” (the personal replicas), which, arguably, makes it the leading company in this field.
“The UNIQLO project was an amazing success thanks to the work done by Michael Anderson – President at DOOB USA. It was the first global world tour of its kind and has help us consolidate our partnership with them,” Devic told me. “They are a perfect partners because they are very much technology oriented and they are the fastest growing clothing retailer in the world, with as many as 3.000 stores and 2.000 more on the way.”
Miki and his team have just returned from Japan, where they oversaw the opening of the new flagship store in the central district of Shibuya and met with as many as 18 different large Japanese companies to discuss and illustrate ways to integrate Doob Group’s technology into their own content, leveraging on their current established customer base. “Many large companies love what we do because they see it as a way to enter the 3D world that is opening up in front of them,” Devic pointed out.
The Doob Group’s stores, whether stand alone such as the ones in Dusseldorf, Tokyo and Santa Monica, or shop-in-shop such as the one in Berlin, focus on the “Doob” figurines as core business. Customers simply step inside the Dooblicator and get a digital 3D model in just a few seconds, with sizes ranging from 10 cm to 1:1.
“We are creating photography 3.0, letting people literally enter a new dimension,” Devic says. “I still think the most amazing moment is when people pick their figuring up and their eyes get wider and they realize: ‘it’s me!’ I think this is a very powerful emotion and I am certain we are going to soon see huge growth in the public’s awareness of this powerful 3D technology. And we are going to be there to help people and companies harness it.”
