Are you a fan of the Big Bang Theory? We are! In Season 6, Episode 14 (called the “Cooper/Kripke Inversion”), Howard Wolowitz and Raj Koothrappali order customized figurines of themselves online. When the toys arrive, they are quickly disappointed at how little the dolls resemble them. Raj suggests buying a used 3D Printer and doing the job right. They scan themselves and Bernadette with a Kinect sensor and manufacture perfect replicas of each other in color. At least, that’s how they do it in TV-Land. (Here’s the full sequence below; watch from 2:40 to see the figures Howard creates of himself and his wife Bernadette, then read below the fold for the real story of how it was done).
Actually the real scanning was done with an Artec Eva scanner, not a Kinect sensor. The scans done with Kinect didn’t have the right resolution/texture for a quality, color 3D print. Artec’s authorized reseller, Chris Strong from Rapid Scan was invited to the set to do the scanning.
Here are behind the scenes shots of them being scanned, and then the 3D images that were used to create the figures:
Find out more about Artec 3D scanners at http://www.artec3d.com/
