Naked Labs Inc, a California-based startup focusing on 3D scanning technology, has launched a home-use 3D body scanner for fitness tracking.
The company has also raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Peter Thiel’s San Francisco-based venture capital firm Founders Fund. Other investors participating in the funding round included Lumia Capital, Venture 51, Seabed VC, and New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a US-based venture capital firm.
New Enterprise Associates has also invested in Desktop Metal and more recently Formlabs. Investment in the current funding round came from Cyan Banister, a Founders Fund Partner. Banister said, “Founders Fund is known for investing in big ideas, and Naked Labs is no exception”.
The Series A funds will be used to grow the enterprise and expand manufacturing.
The Naked Labs 3D fitness tracker
The 3D body scanner is called the Naked 3D Fitness Tracker and is now shipping to pre-order customers. General availability is expected in the fourth quarter of 2018. The price of the scanner is $1,395 and includes a companion app (Naked). The ultimate goal of Naked Labs is to bring 3D body scanning to every home.
The Naked Labs 3D Fitness Tracker has a minimalist design smart mirror. It is equipped with three Intel RealSense 410 Series depth sensors and a laser pointer. These depth sensors capture the surrounding depth through InfraRed cameras to provide accurate results. The scanner can be connected to the Naked app through WiFi or Bluetooth.
The Naked app instructs the users to stand on the scale with a straight back, extending their arms slightly parted from the sides. Once the user steps on the scale, it rotates 360 degrees and makes a 3D scan of the body. The process of making the scan and carrying out an analysis only takes 15 seconds.
The 3D body scan appears in grayscale in the Naked app. The logic behind keeping the scans grey and simple, according to Farhad Farahbakhshian, the founder of Naked Labs, is “to take away any form of emotional attachment to the body model and make it as objective as possible,”
In the app, the users can compare their data with previous scans to help track their fitness and design a better fitness plan.
The market for 3D body scanning
In 2017, Amazon’s shipping costs were $21.7 billion dollars, a figure expected to rise. In the same year, Amazon bought Body Labs, a Manhattan-based AI human modeling company. Body Labs’ technology could enable Amazon’s buyers to virtually try on clothing items. As the buyers will be able to see the results before purchase, this could save Amazon a significant amount of money on return shipping for clothing that does not fit as expected.
More recently, 3DLOOK, a silicon valley body scanning startup raised $1 million in seed funding to advance their 3D scanning technology. Their SAIA technology can generate accurate measurements of human body from two photos taken from a mobile.
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Featured image shows a model standing on the Naked scale with the 3D Fitness Tracker, ready to be scanned. Photo via Naked Labs
