We’ve seen some pretty cool ideas come from software developers and engineers involving the iPhone. Although many of these technology demos never make it to consumer products, it’s always fun to see what people dream up.
This time we have an application that’s already made it to the App Store, but the innovation it uses is still astounding. Trimensional is an app for the iPhone that has the ability to scan 3D objects. While that alone might seem boring, it’s what you can do with the scanned image that’s so interesting…
ReadWriteWeb has posted a story about the app and its intriguing capabilities. Trimensional turns your iPhone into the smallest 3D scanner on the market. You can even take the scanned images and print them on a 3D printer.
The application is actually pretty simple. You just open it up and go to a dark room. The app uses your iPhone 4‘s front facing camera to detect light patterns off an object.
Once the image is captured, you can email it out or save it to the camera roll. That’s about all the app is good for unless you happen to have access to a 3D printer. Then the possibilities are endless. Anything you take a snap shot of, from your face to a chess piece can be turned into a physical 3D model.
Although 3D printers are still a ways away from mainstream consumer adoption, you have to admit the technology is pretty cool. Even just seeing yourself in 3D is worth the download. For those who want to check it out, Trimensional is available in iTunes for $0.99.
Where does this rank out of all the cool iDevice ideas you’ve seen?