What if your phone was your new 3D scanner? This is what the Japanese manufacturer SONY wants to offer with its new cell phones, the Xperia XZ1 and the XZ1 Compact, in order to make this scanning technology accessible to everyone. In this way, you would have the possibility to digitize everything possible in 3D.
The XYZ1 (right) and the XYZ Compact
So far there have only been similar initiatives trying to combine smartphones and 3D scanners. But these, to this day, have never been found in a single device. The 3D scanner was like an additional device that was connected to the smartphone to visualize things in 3D models, like Eora 3D or iSense did for the iPhone models 6 and 6+. This makes SONY the first manufacturer to bring both technologies together. The Japanese are also particularly known for the quality of the cameras that are built into their smartphones. In addition, almost half of all image sensors in smartphones come from SONY.
The 3D Creator application
The company presented its Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact models at the International Consumer Electronics Fair IFA in Berlin. These smartphones are equipped with a very advanced image sensor capable of scanning everyday objects. This technique is supposed to be quite easy to use, since the 3D scanner works with the 3D Creator app, in which a practical guide can be found. Scanning works like taking a picture of an object by pointing the lens at it. Unlike many mobile scanners, there is no need to connect to a cloud service to process an image as it all happens right in the smartphone itself.
The 3D Creator app has four different scanning modes: one for scanning the head, one for figures, one for food and one for free forms. The 3D scan only takes 60 seconds and the file can then be sent via email or Whatapp and shared in communities such as Sketchfab. On the other hand, there is also the option to send the file to a 3D printer or to an online printing service.
Will Sony’s initiative be able to democratize 3D digitization? One cannot deny the strengths and simplicity of this technology. However, one can of course ask whether this is just a gadget intended to boost sales of the Xperia models. We will of course keep you up to date on this.
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