It seems like not a week goes by without 3D Systems announcing some sort of acquisition or strategic partnership. Now is no exception, with the burgeoning 3D printing giant snapping up an unknown startup to get its hands on photo capture technology.
3D Systems' latest conquest is Viztu Technologies, born from a pair of MIT students who started out on a mission to deliver tools that could help users create 3D content from ordinary digital photos and videos. The company's product, Hypr3D, is an online platform that lets anyone, not just engineers, turn their pictures and videos into 3D creations that can then be output from a 3D printer or 3D printing service.
The Viztu platform, which lets people turn pictures and videos into printable 3D creations, will eventually be integrated into Cubify.com, 3D Systems' content creation platform. (Source: 3D Systems)
The Viztu technology falls into the category of photo editing technology, essentially delivering the ability to scan objects and images that already exist to use them as a basis for design. Autodesk has been experimenting with this type of capability for some time. Its Project Photofly, now called Autodesk 123D Catch, is billed as a photo scene editor for creating 3D models from photographs using a Web-based service. The capability is currently in beta test.
3D Systems' plans are to integrate Viztu's Hypr3D into its Cubify.com platform, an online community and content creation site announced last January. The addition rounds out the online forum, delivering additional scan-to-print and create-to-print apps. "Viztu adds an important building block to our growing Cubify platform," said Cathy Lewis, 3D Systems' president of global marketing, in a press release announcing the acquisition. "Now everyone can begin to express themselves in 3D as easily as snapping a picture."
In an interview, Abe Reichental, 3D Systems CEO and co-founder, said the latest acquisition is in keeping with the firm's mission to democratize 3D and compress the creativity cycle. While the acquisition and Cubify platform is aimed at general users, Reichental says the technology has applicability for professional engineers, as well. "Rather than starting from sketches and solid models, engineers can start their design from an existing shape and then modify that to create something new," he explained. "That accelerates the design cycle significantly."
In its short life as an independent, Viztu scored some pretty impressive accolades. The company was a semi-finalist in the 2010 MIT $100K Business Plan Competition, and it won the 2012 SWSW Accelerator Award in the Innovative Web category. The company's founders, Ash Martin and Tom Milnes, will join the 3D Systems team.
@CLMcDade: Makerbot is definitely an important player in the low-cost 3D printer revolution. Originally it was more of a hobbyist/put together yourself kit, but now they're offering preassembled units as well. Definitely worth putting on the radar screen so thanks for singling them out!
CLMcDade: If I'm not mistaken, I think what you're referring to in Creo is more direct modeling capabilities, not necessarily the ability to create a 3D model from a scanned image. While Creo is certainly ushering in a host of cool and high-utility capabilities, I'm not sure this is one of them.
I know this is about 2d pics to 3d, but I wanted to add this. They can 3d scan parts now in just minutes and have accurate models. I know some uses of that now, but I can think of many many more. I think I need to somehow get into this new wave.
Remember how I said you could start with just a clay mold of a given set of inchesxinches? Well, I love the idea of actually starting with a mold of a product you actually have, but just need to modify it. I mean they are doing it with pictures now and 3d, but in my idea it would be more than that. You could remove pieces of an assembly and fit on a new part....ahh..I give too much away as is...lol
The minimal dimension parameters was always my problem with some of the early versions of free form design applications. It always seemed like you ended up with a random size that had to be scaled up or down in percentages.
The example in Creo showed a marker rendering that was done on an overlay of an existing assembly. So the scale was set up by the surrounding reference material.
On the rapid prototyping side of the article, here is a link to another 3D printer that extrudes plastic layers to build up a form. I don't think I've seen this one covered yet in Design News Online.
While this is a desktop unit, the extrusion buildup is similar to the approach of the gentleman who jury-rigged the Chinese robot to do the same on a large scale. http://www.makerbot.com/
The interesting thing that I noticed is that the finished bunny rabbit doesn't show any telltale signs of the layering process.
Of all the "home" systems that I have been reading about in Design News posts, this one seems to be the most inviting and accessible. And the bank of 3D shapes contributed by users is great - it helps those who have no CAD background get started immediately!
One of those Iron Man helmets might be in my future...
Thanks for the info, CLMcDade. One thing that mystifies me about converting a 2D photo or image to 3D is how the software knows the dimensions of the object. Is it programmed to "guess"?
A form of this 2D to 3D function has made it into the new release of Creo (Creo 2 formerly Pro Engineer). I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but the tutorials and webinars show an almost Play-Doh approach to creating a 3D parametric model referencing a 2D sketch that has been imported.
The utility of this type of function has been increased from previous attempts because this method is scaleable to existing assemblies. Dimensions usually matter unless you are purely ideating, and Creo 2 allows you to scale the freeform easily.
The 3D printing revolution seems to have a knack for quickly moving technology ahead by way of collaborative effort and even a little friendly competition -- all of course in the name of scientific advancement.
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