Get your own full-body 3D scan... for free

In an innocuous apartment room in the eastern corner of Shinjuku, David Watts is making copies of people. When Time Out drops by for a scheduled appointment at The Watts Works on a Friday morning, the Australian native – stocky and a little shaggy – is already prepped and waiting. Around him stands a circular wooden frame rigged with seventy DSLR cameras, which Watts uses to create detailed, full-body 3D models of his subjects. If you like the end results, you can have them turned into a figurine via the marvels of 3D printing.

The Watts Works isn't the first joint in Tokyo to have tried this, but the approach here is different. While forerunners Omote 3D used a more labour-intensive process of projecting pixels onto subjects – known as structured light – Watts' rig gets the shot almost instantly. The cameras, positioned at a variety of heights and angled towards the centre of the room, are linked with a lattice of wires that enables them to be triggered simultaneously with a single switch. The images are then fed into a few laptops, leaving Watts with a mountain of data that takes a few hours to process for each image.

The software he uses, Agisoft PhotoScan, was actually designed for terrain mapping, but it seems to lend itself well to capturing the human body too. In layman's terms, he says, 'the computer finds interesting features in each photograph, and then tries to match those features between photographs… One of the good things about it is that it uses all of the photographs to make the texture, which brings a lot of realism to the final product.' There are still a few limitations, though: he'd told me in advance to come dressed in bright clothes, as he's discovered that these reproduce better; and while striking a pose is fine, it's best to keep the arms and legs close to the body, with no outstretched fingers. Though he'd said it could take up to half an hour, we're finished in a fraction of that time – and the following day I'm the proud owner of a fully manipulatable 3D image of myself that might come in handy as a CV if Kraftwerk are ever hiring new members.

See a larger version of this model

Over coffee afterwards, Watts discusses the potential applications of this technology in the future. While he envisages the 3D models – and, more importantly, the figurines – being popular with cosplay enthusiasts, he has much grander ambitions than that. Once he's accumulated a sufficient library of 3D poses, he'll be able to use them in a kind of semi-automatic filmmaking – based around the Unreal Developer's Kit – where the action can be manipulated by parameters like emotional intensity and visual energy. 'It's the content and the form, separated,' he says.

That's still a way off, though. In the meantime, Watts is offering free full-body 3D scans until June 30 (usual price ¥5,000), including data like the 3D image above. Figurines start at ¥10,000 for a 10cm tall model, going up to ¥30,000 for a 30cm version that seems just a little too pricey to get as a Christmas present for my niece. But you never know – she might get lucky.

The Watts Works. #701, 1-36-12 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo (thewattsworks.com). If you're interested in getting a 3D scan, use the contact page to arrange an appointment