I can envision every large mall having a look-alike figurine maker. You would have equipment that does a 3D scan of your child, a "3D printer" (which actually exists) that creates a resin reproduction, and another 3D inkjet printer that prints on skin and clothing color as the statuette rotates in a fixture. Within 20 minutes, you have a 10" high, _startlingly_ realistic statuette of their child or pet that would bring many to tears. What a treasure! People would pay any price, but 200-300 US dollars should be plenty profitable for 20 minutes work and materials.
-- bobad, May 30 2004

Z Corporation Z406 System http://www.zcorp.co...tersdetail.asp?ID=2
Color 3D printer. [jutta, Oct 04 2004]

(?) Cyberware whole body scanner http://www.cyberwar...roducts/wbInfo.html
Graphics workstation not included. [jutta, Oct 04 2004]

Scantech Scanner http://www.scantech...root=2&url=&search=
Another scanning system that will link directly to your CNC milling machine to produce a 3D replica in stone, wood, foam, plastic, etc. This site has been cited here before by others but I thought it was worth repeating. Poke around a bit in its index and applications. There are some interesting projects. [jurist, Oct 04 2004]

Profitable it would be. Many more people would pay to have this done for their pets, though. Hell, I'd pay to see it done for my tiger barbs.
-- dpsyplc, May 30 2004


$300 is a bit stiff for mall sales, and it looks like the time is still an order of magnitude off.
The Z406 is a color printer (and, according to the manufacturer, uses a Cabot Corporation Inkjet pigment system), so you might work around the second separate pass and printer. I've seen its price mentioned as $80,000, although it may have come down a bit by now.

Maybe start smaller and cheaper - your child's face as a pendant in fake ivory for $80 and 10 minutes?
-- jutta, May 30 2004


I've seen a business (I think it was in Universal's Islands of Adventure themem park) that was somewhat similar. They take your picture and engrave your likeness on a piece of glass. The only drawback is that you had to come back several hours later to pick it up. I would have definitely bought one if I could have gotten it made instantaneously. So, kudos for the projected time frame if you could actually accomplish it.
-- tchaikovsky, May 30 2004


I saw a puppeteer making dolls such as those at an art show. At first I thought it was creepy but lots of people were buying them. The dolls weren't very lifelike but enough to use for voodoo ceremonies. I think you have a market.
-- trashymama, May 30 2004


3d Printers are cheaper all the time, and materials costs are a joke. However, 3d inkjet printer would leave you better off with someone doing the job by hand, as far as I've seen.

Assuming all goes well, my bet would definitely be less than an hour for total production time, and assembly lining the job would make it that much more profitable. Cheaper production quality (or just slower), and swapping the numbers almost seems natural for 200-300 minutes for a 20 dollar statuette of your little joey joe joe junior. I'd pay for that.

Also, any specifics on how the 3d scan would be done? I know Star Trek has been doing it for decades but I've yet to see a reliable irl 3d scanner, and I've been looking too.
-- Cheekio, May 31 2004


[link]
-- jurist, May 31 2004


To decrease the cost, just scan the head and make bobble-head dolls. Nice one. (WTAGIPBAN).
-- krelnik, May 31 2004


Bobble heads could probably be created quickly and cheaply. But what I had in mind was very accurate 3D resin figurines with photo-realistic features printed on with an inkjet printer. The accuracy and realism would be so great that they could be mistaken for the real thing at a distance. The effect would be really spooky, and evoke deep emotions... especially in moms. They would be much much more than a picture.
-- bobad, May 31 2004


ILM, Pixar Etc. do full 3D scans all the time. It's really fast now. I would guess that to be the easy part. The 3D resin development is not perfectly accurate yet, but it's getting there. I have never heard os a 3D inkjet printer yet, but it should just be a matter of interpolating 3D to flat maps and then back again. The figurine would have to rurn on a precise axis at a precise rotational rate to match the printer.
-- bobad, May 31 2004


//How fast are we talking? Fast enough to scan someone who can hold a pose for a few seconds or fast enough to scan a baby with a sub-second attention span?//

Depends on whether you call the speed of light fast. I think it's pretty fast. :)

I used the term "scan", which unintentionally painted a vision of a slow, CT scanner-like device. There can simply be an array of CCD's that all fire at the same time. Actually 4 would be enough to get adequate 3D information, but What the heck.. they're cheap. A dozen CCD's should do great with less interpolation needed.
-- bobad, Jun 02 2004


//Actually 4 would be enough to get adequate 3D information, but What the heck.. they're cheap. A dozen CCD's should do great with less interpolation needed.//

I don't think you know what you're talking about.
-- zigness, Aug 24 2004


Baked on Dubai Airport (2007) - 40 Dollars would buy you a 3D likeness of anything you could shove into the cabin, although not carved, but as bubbles in an acrylic block.
-- loonquawl, Jan 16 2009


Link?
-- Spacecoyote, Jan 16 2009


So, if the cabin part is bigger than the machinery part, you could put the machinery part in the cabin to make a smaller machine, which could then...
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 16 2009



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