epic games has introduced a new 3D scanning app for smartphones called RealityScan.
The application uses smartphone cameras and photos to create high-quality 3D photogrammetric models of real objects for use on digital platforms. You can learn more about how it works in the new Epic commercial embedded below.
In the video, the user takes several pictures of an object – in this case a chair – that allows the application to create a 3D model that can be used in digital applications, as well as scale and position it as needed.
Epic states that the app “guides users through the scanning process with interactive feedback, AR guidance, and data quality verification”, then “almost instantaneously” can create a model. The resulting models can be uploaded to Sketchfab (which Epic acquired in the middle of last year) and used on many platforms, including VR and AR.
The app was developed by Epic in collaboration with CapturingReality (acquired by Epic last year) and Quixel. It’s currently in a limited beta for iOS – the first 10,000 users will get access on a first-come, first-served basis, with wider access later in the spring.
This isn’t the first app to offer some form of 3D scanning on smartphones, but it’s arguably the most talked-about hack of this concept. Capturing 3D objects is likely to play a big part in the future of VR and AR. Headsets like the Varjo XR-3 with lidar allow users to scan their environment and present it to others in real time, and games like Puzzling Places also demonstrate the creative potential of photogrammetric data by offering puzzles made up of real objects and places. , scanned into the game as 3D models.
You can now participate in the limited beta of RealityScan for iOS, while seats are available, via TestFlight. Android support is coming later this year. You can read more about RealityScan here.
