3D Scanning

Ordinarily, if you want to create a lifelike 3D digital model of someone's face, a 3D scanner and/or multiple cameras are required. Now, however, scientists from Carnegie Mellon University have created a system that lets a smartphone do the job.

After over decade of development, the world’s first full-body medical scanner has produced its first images. The groundbreaking imaging device is almost 40 times faster than current PET scans and can capture a 3D picture of the entire human body in one instant scan.

San Francisco's Naked Labs has started shipping its 3D-scanning smart mirror with rotating scale. Connected to a mobile app, the Naked scales build 3D models of your body, then track them through your hypothetical healthy transformation.

​You know those displays of labelled insects stuck on pins? Well, they decay over time, and sometimes even get eaten BY an insect known as the museum beetle. That's why German scientists have created a more permanent alternative – an automated 3D scanner designed specifically for imaging insects.

The American Dental Association recommends cleaning between teeth at least once per day. Generally, this is done using a strand of dental floss. Though important, it does take time. What if you could floss all your teeth in one bite? That's what Blizzident is promising with its 3D-Flosser.

​​Traditional plaster casts are a hassle. A team of Colorado-based entrepreneurs, however, has developed a 21st century alternative – the ActivArmor support device.​

​A recent study suggested that the number of unique species on Earth is 1 trillion. Granted, the vast majority of those are microbes, but still, Digital Life's goal to make 3D scans of every kind of living animal is very ambitious.

A professor at UW wants to catch 'em all, but he isn't content with just 700 Pokemon. His ambitions are a little loftier, aiming to collect and scan all 25,000 known species of fish, to create 3D models of their skeletons which can then be freely downloaded, 3D printed and studied.

A new fingerprint scanner that could find its way to our smartphones borrows from sophisticated medical equipment to deliver more accurate, 3D ultrasonic scanning.