Researchers at Japan’s Waseda University are developing a tool that is capable of generating 3D scans of people’s faces from a single photograph, eliminating the need for expensive 3D scanning technology currently in use. The program uses measurements collected from thousands of faces in advance to acquire the additional information necessary to translate the two-dimensional photograph into a three-dimensional model. While the technology is being developed in order to improve the efficiency of facial modeling in game production (now when you massacre a slew of bad guys in “Call of Duty” or “Medal of Honor” they can have the faces of all your friends and enemies!), we know that artists and animators are going to be all over this thing. We can only begin to imagine what Creators Radical Friend, would do with this kind of technology in their hands — the duo has already been experimenting with 3D facial modeling in their awe-inspiring interactive installation The Digital Flesh.
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