3D Scanning And Printing The President

This week the White House has released a video showing state of the art scanning and printing processes being used to create the first ever digitally fabricated presidential bust.

Working in conjunction with Smithsonian Digitization Program Office and USC Institute for Creative Technologies the President was digitized.  The Mobile Light Stage was brought to the whitehouse to take a detailed scan. This light stage uses 50 custom LED arrays to reflect different types of light off of the subject while capturing that information in 8 high resolution cameras and 6 wide angle cameras. He was also scanned with hand held 3D scanners.

In the video, they talk about the life masks that were taken from Abraham Lincoln. There are parallels between the two systems as we now have an accurate representation of President Obama’s face. However, one cool thing that didn’t exist before is the fact that this can now be transmitted digitally anywhere and reproduced with a 3D printer.

The next step should be 3D printing his bust in the international space station so that he can also be the first person printed in space!