Grant Schindler, research scientist at Georgia Tech's College of Computing created Trimensional, an app that uses the iPhone 4, iPad 2 or most recent iPod Touch to take 3-D scans of faces or other objects. Photo: Rob Felt/Georgia Tech

(PhysOrg.com) -- Leave it to an iPhone app developer to turn a tool that cost hundreds of dollars a year ago into something that can be done with a 99-cent app. Grant Schindler, research scientist in Georgia Techs College of Computing, created Trimensional, the first app that allows users with an iPhone 4, iPad 2 or recent iPod Touch to take 3-D scans of faces or other objects and share them by e-mail. Now in the latest update, users can also e-mail animated videos of their 3-D models. For a few dollars more, artists and designers can even export their creation to CAD programs or 3-D applications, such as Maya.

Trimensional works by using the iPhones screen to shine four different lighting patterns on the subject while also using the devices front-facing camera to snap photos. It produces a full 3-D model that you can zoom into, pan around and view from any angle.

You can just have fun with it, or if you work with 3-D models, you can use it professionally, said Schindler, a research scientist in Techs School of Interactive Computing in the College of Computing.

The program uses a technique that was originally designed in the 1980s, but required an expensive set up of lights, a still model and a lot of time. But now, Trimensional has automated this process. The program works by taking every pixel and asking the same question using four different lighting conditions.

If I take a scan of my face, the app asks what does the image look like if I shine the light from the left side, what does it look like from the right side, and so on. Theres one three-dimensional answer per pixel, and combining all those answers results in the full 3-D model, said Schindler.

In the first version of the app, which was released in January, users could send still images of their scans via e-mail. This update allows the app to stitch different views of a model together into a movie or an animated gif and e-mail.

How It Works

The new pro upgrade for Trimensional (available as an in-app purchase) will also send a file that you can use any 3-D program to open, so artists and other 3-D professionals or hobbyists can now use this $5 app to perform a task that used to require hundreds of dollars worth of equipment.

There are professional, $40,000 3-D scanners out there; this wont perform like those do, but for anything under $100, this is your best bet, added Schindler.

Trimensional began as a program for a desktop computer in 2008, using the screen to light the subject.

I thought surely someone had done this before, so I looked and no one had done it that way. It was amazing to really see it working, he said.

3-D Scan

Later, Schindler entered it into the Georgia Tech Research & Innovation Conference. He didnt win, but being in the conference put him in touch with Techs business incubator, the Advanced Technology Development Center. ATDC provided invaluable advice that helped turn Trimensional from an idea into a real product, said Schindler. When the iPhone 4 came out with the front-facing camera, he thought, its finally time to build an app.

In the future, he imagines people being able to do more with 3-D models.

Once we get scanners in everyones hands, you should be able to use these images for any use you can think of, replicating physical objects by sending your scans to a 3-D printer, or creating a perfect digital substitute to take your video calls when youre not looking your best, said Schindler. Or you could put it on your World of Warcraft character, or use it in other games.

Schindler is now working on a version for the Android operating system. In addition, hes developing a chess game he created into an app. Do we really need another chess game app? Yes, we do, because this one, called Evolutionary War, has evolving pieces.