Sculpting by Numbers Lets You Be Michaelangelo

Think you need talent and training to become a sculptor? Now with some computer guidance, intricate 3D shapes can be reproduced with little effort.

Developed by Alec Rivers and colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the system uses a camera to scan the object you want to recreate. Then its shape is compared with a lump of material, such as clay, which is positioned in its place. The discrepancy is calculated and transmitted to a projector that displays a colour-coded depth guide, representing where material should be added or removed to achieve the desired shape.

In this video, you can watch a novice sculptor recreate the head of Michaelangelo's "David" with help from the projection. But the system can also be used to make larger or smaller replicas from completely different materials. Another example shows how a toy car was scanned in order to scale it up as a cake, complete with frosting and cookie wheels.

Precise detail is achieved thanks to two types of guidance: a projection mode that helps the sculptor produce the coarse shape and another that shows fine surface features. While using each setting, a user can choose to rescan their work at any point to reveal more accurate feedback.

In addition to being a sculpting aid, the system also provides a new approach for claymation. By scanning a human performer with a Kinect camera, different poses can be transferred to a clay figurine to create a realistic stop-motion animation based on a person's movements.

The work will be presented later this year at Siggraph Asia, a conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques in Singapore.

Original article by Sandrine Ceurstemont, New Scientist TV