3D Filament Shop Scans a Baby and Demonstrates a Phenomenon

Plastic filament provider 3D Filament Shop has been scanning things. Including a baby. 

Their team used their new Occipital 3D scanner to capture 3D images of a baby, as selected from the public. They explain: 

We advertised on our Facebook page for a new born baby to scan to see how the detail would show through and the results were fantastic. We visited the Childs house and scanned in for about 30mins in total. 

The final print shown above is painted, and you can twirl the 3D model around here in the SketchFab version.
 

Full Scan Painted
by the3dfilamentshop
on Sketchfab

Imaging babies is something parents do, and they do it a lot. Adding the capability of a 3D “image” to record their memories of a rapidly growing and changing child can be a very strong concept for proud parents. Since babies are often immobile when snoozing, they could make for exceptional subjects for 3D scans.  Perhaps this could be a new type of sideline business for those with 3D scanning gear? 

3D scanning and printing people is definitely not a new thing; it’s been happening as soon as people got their hands on the appropriate equipment. Many people, including us, have undertaken scanning operations. It’s sometimes tricky, but always quite startling for the recipient when they receive a sculpture of themselves. 

If you think about it, it’s rather strange that people would get so excited about an uncolored, rough-surfaced, small figurine of themselves. Why do they do so? 

It’s the novelty. It’s something previously impossible. 

Consider people from over 150 years ago who first encountered photographs. These very crude images were similarly viewed with amazement. Something similar, but not as pronounced, occurred when color images emerged, making memory capture even more realistic. 

Now we see the same phenomenon taking place with 3D printing. It’s another way to capture the memory of something that may change. 

Via 3D Filament Shop