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Entertainment

Fabricate Yourself Installation Is Like A Sculptural Polaroid

Visual data is captured using the motion sensor of a Kinect, then fabricated into a 3×3cm plastic portrait.

We’re used to seeing portraits of ourselves in photographic format, but how about having your likeness represented in printed plastic from data captured using the motion sensor of a Kinect? That’s what the project Fabricate Yourself from Karl D.D. Willis aims to do. Using a Kinect to capture the depth image of a person, Willis then saves the .stl file of their chosen pose and fabricates plastic models using a donated Dimension uPrint, which usually cost from around £9,000 upwards. The project was recently exhibited at the Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction Conference in Portugal in January.

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Each individual piece has dovetail joints on them so they can all be placed together like a jigsaw puzzle to create a unique group portrait of the attendees. It’s the simplicity of use, the relative immediacy of the result, and the unusual 3D representational form which make the project exciting. You could imagine it being set up like a photo booth taking people’s images and churning out a rapid prototyped model to take home as a souvenir—a bit like the sculptural equivalent of the Polaroid picture, except not quite as instantaneous. But it’s getting there.