Last week, at Moscow’s Open Innovation Forum, exhibit attendees had an opportunity to experience a new 3D scanner that they could literally walk into. The design of MiniMe3D’s Hyperpod 3D Photo Booth was thought up by Skoltech IT graduates Vahe Tamazyan, Mikhail Matrosov, and Stanislav Podshivalov, who have joined together to start their own startup venture called Tardis 3D Technologies.
In collaboration with MiniMe3D, the three creators specifically engineered the scanner to be able to capture human full-body 3D scans in a quick and efficient manner, while the aesthetic design resembles a sleekly curved vortex made of steel. Potential users of the Hyperpod are able to take an endless amount of variously positioned scans before having to choose which one is most suitable for a 3D printed figurine. “The peculiarity of these devices is that they have a lot of small know-how related to the algorithm as well as hardware,” said Tamazyan. “During the development we constantly had something to invent and develop.”
After scanning over 300 attendees over the four days of the Open Innovation Forum, MiniMe3D and Tardis 3D have shown that all of their reinventing has led them to a grandiose device. Though Tardis 3D is yet to disclose the exact nature of the scanning process – whether it uses cameras or depth sensing/scanning technology – they have told us that they are working on “proprietary software to run the scanner and process 3D models”. The Hyperpod is limited in both software and hardware, but was purposely engineered like so in order to maintain the goal of capturing 1.5 million-pixel, full-body scans in less than one minute. The Hyperpod was also made to be easily operated by all, in order to attract museums, malls, and other potential clients. After the user takes their unlimited number of different poses inside of the Hyperpod, they are able to resize and customize their figurines, which are 3D printed through the 3D printing partners of MiniMe3D, approximately three days after scan selection.
By making this 3D scanner an instant and tension-free experience, users are able to strike much more relaxed and inventive scanning poses, as opposed to some of the current consumer 3D scanners that force users to sit still while being captured. If the Hyperpod can compete with other existing 3D scanning booths on the market, I can definitely imagine the Hyperpod replacing local photo booths in the near future, and as our 3D scanning and printing capabilities become more accessible to the public and also more advanced in general, we may soon have a Hyperpod 3D Photo Booth at our nearest shopping mall.
