You might be familiar with apps that stitch together panorama photos or 360° media for VR use, but we have come across something new. The Qlone app, from EyeCue Vision Tech, lets you scan objects in real life and the software will turn it into a digital model file.
Next to just viewing the rendered model on the phone and sharing it with others, you can also edit the model and export it into different file formats so you can use it in various ways. For instance, you could save it into a format that lets you 3D-print the model, or you export it into Blender to add some rigging joints and animate it in Unity.
How does it work?
The Qlone app is currently only available on iOS. With it, you can use your iPhone’s camera and carefully scan objects into the app by following a dome grid guide on the phone’s display. The scan will record dimensions, surface variations, and colors. Based on the promo videos, the AR model of the object you scanned can look just like the real object, giving you a hard time to distinguish between what’s real and what is not.
Entertainment use cases for consumers
EyeCue Vision Tech has already prepared demos wherein they have shown how they were able to scan in an object and export it to a Lego blocks building tutorial. Another use case demonstrates the same file being imported into Minecraft (a creative block building video game).
Other uses in the emerging AR and VR markets could be easily implemented as well. Bringing digital content into our reality was the first step. Qlone thinks of the next level and brings real objects into the digital world, may it be AR, VR or MR.
Ideas to integrate this into other platforms
This is also interesting for both B2B and B2C companies alike. Would you buy a product without seeing videos of it or at least a couple of photos from different angles? Amazon and eBay sellers would tell you that a visual product presentation is imperative to make a sale. This effect could be improved even more by 3D-scanning products and embedding them in the product page on an ecommerce platform. Unity could even do that natively in major browsers.
If you’re coming more from an academic angle, this technology could also make sense. In fields such as archeology, researchers could simply scan their findings and categorize them digitally in a cloud shared with other scientists. Schools and museums alike around the globe could then allow much more people to browse these items without logistical restrictions.
Summary
This is a fascinating technology with many potential applications in all kinds of sectors. If the Qlone team keeps up doing a great job, this could be a pivotal achievement to many other companies to make use of it. Keep an eye on this area. What do you think about this solution? Check our video below for more examples and demos!
YouTube: 3D Scanner App for 3D Printing and More (Qlone for iPhone)
Photo credit: EyeCue Vision Tech
