By Reuters

Chocolate hearts for loved ones on Valentine's Day are so last year - at least in Japan where one Tokyo design firm offered up its 3D scanner to make miniature chocolate replicas of faces.

In a one-off celebration for Valentine's Day, KS Design Lab invited people to be scanned with its 3D body scanner to create silicon moulds in the shape of their heads. Participants then poured chocolate into them to make mini-me treats on a stick.

"I didn't actually think it would turn out to look this much like me, so I'm a bit surprised," said Mariya Kawae, 30, who planned to give out heads to her husband and work mates.

After the scan people were invited to edit their facial data on a computer before it was sent to a 3D printer, the next step for creating the mould. Once the mould was in hand, all that remained was to pour in the chocolate.

Give it 15 minutes to harden, and each person had a replica of their head roughly 3 cm long (1.2 inch), mounted on a stick like a lollipop for handy eating.

Though participants made only one piece of chocolate during the event, each was given the mould to take home for use in making more chocolates or perhaps even ice cubes.

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