Oct 6, 2016 | By Benedict
Japanese startup VRC has introduced the Shun’X, a full-body 3D scanner that can scan a person in just four seconds. The scanner uses eight Nikon DSLRs and eight ASUS Xtion Pro Live depth cameras to capture its subject.
Attendees of the CEATEC trade show, the largest IT and electronics exhibition in Japan, have this week been getting a sneak preview of a number of exciting technological innovations, including 8K broadcasting equipment, advanced Internet of Things systems, bendable batteries, and much more. The event covers all kinds of technology, but those who happened to pass through Hall 4 of the CPS/IoT Technology & Software Area will have noticed what looks like a sleek, high-tech changing room in the midst of the computer-mad melee. The six-sided booth, which takes up most of VRC Corporation’s exhibition space, is in fact the Shun’X, a fully-body scanner covering six square meters of floorspace—which is actually on the smaller side compared to most walk-in scanning booths.
According to VRC, the Shun’X, which stands at 2.3 meters tall and around 2.5 meters wide and deep, is a revolutionary product due to its rapid scanning abilities. With “shun” meaning “instantaneous” and “X” implying the possibility of endless possibilities, the four-second scanning time of the Shun’X lives up to the product name. This quick scanning time, versus the 10 or more seconds from a regular body scanner, means that human subjects entering the 3D scanning booth do not have to hold their pose for so long which could avoid failed or distorted scans.
Image credit: VR Watch
Inside the Shun’X 3D scanning booth there are six pillars which rotate about the subject, who stands in the center. Two of these pillars are each equipped with four Nikon DSLRs and four accompanying ASUS Xtion Pro Live depth cameras, while the other four pillars are lined with bright LED lights to illuminate the subject. Yingdi Xie, CEO of VRC, has spent over ten years researching the technology, and believes that a combination of regular DSLRs and depth cameras is the secret to high-quality 3D scanning.
Image credit: VR Watch
The full-body VRC 3D scanner uses a dedicated software package which can locally output a render in around two minutes, quicker than many competitors. VRC envisions the 3D scanning system, hardware and software, being picked up by vendors who will then be able to charge customers as little as $10 to have their 3D scan taken—this scan could then be kept digital or transformed into a 3D printed model or “selfie.”
Although the price and business model of the Shun’X has not been disclosed, VRC is currently taking orders, and Engadget has reported that the machine could be in the $75,000 range. It is not yet clear whether VRC will seek to take a cut of sales from individual scans carried out by the customer, as it the case with some rival scanning booth systems such as Artec’s Shapify Booth.
Posted in 3D Scanning
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Very cool, I haven't seen a combination of cameras and depth sensors before but it's still so expensive, which doesn't make sense to me because fewer cameras = way less costly to build. I've been looking at 3D body scanners for a few months now and the gold standard still seems to be the Twindom Twinstant Mobile. It captures in 1/4 of a second, it's portable and it's less than 1/3 of the price of this one (price in the $20,000s).
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