Augmented reality app developer Laan Labs has shared a preview of a beta app that achieves 3D scanning with just an iPhone and produces highly-detailed models for sharing with others.
But it might be a while before we see it in the App Store.
According to a tweet from the company, the prototype app uses the beta 6D.ai SDK, which can generate dense point clouds through a standard mobile camera sensor. Users can scan objects by moving around the target, and the app generates a model from the captured data. The app also handles editing and cleanup on the iPhone.
Using the AR Quick Look feature, arriving this month via ARKit 2.0 in iOS 12, users will be able to share the resulting USDZ file through the Messages app, where others will be view the same model in AR.
With this capability, anything that can remain still enough for an iPhone user to walk around could become a 3D model. The demo video shows examples of furniture, food, and even people and pets replicated in detailed 3D.
The company is offering beta access to the app via 3dscannerapp.com, but the domain currently leads to the website for Laan Labs.
Both 6D.ai SDK and ARKit 2.0 are in beta and, while ARKit 2.0 will officially arrive after Apple announces its latest lineup of iPhones next week, 6D.ai has not yet announced when the production version of the 6D.ai SDK will be released.
However, once both platforms are in the wild, an app like the one from Laan Labs could make generating and sharing 3D content as easy as copying and pasting text.
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Cover image via Laan Labs/YouTube
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