Artec helps create a virtual pop idol in Japan!

Japan has always been known for its love affair with technology. This summer our Artec MHT scanner played a major role in Tokyo in creating a virtual Japanese beauty — Eguchi Aimi. Facial scans of six different girls have been taken in order to create a single virtual 'best-of' face. The scanner was used to make single scans of the real girls’ faces, in order to later apply eyes, lips, hair, eyebrows, face outline, and nose to Aimi’s expression. Her lips and nose adjust while she keeps on singing. Real-time 3D editing brought Aimi to life.

Besides their affection for high tech, Japanese seem to have a thing for cute, innocent-looking, fluffy pink girl bands. One of the most popular girl pop groups in Japan is called AKB48 with a record-breaking number of 48 brand members. The nation is madly in love with AKB48. Recently the pop group welcomed a 49th member, Eguchi Aimi, — a lovely Japanese girl whose beauty stunned everyone. As a matter of fact, Aimi turned out to be too beautiful to be true. The confectionary company Ezaki Glico who featured virtual Aimi in their advert for Japanese ice candy, scanned AKB48’s most attractive members’ faces and copy-pasted various parts into one — Aimi.

The final virtual full-body outcome weighed 150GB and had already been the hero of an ice candy commercial, having managed to win thousands of very real Japanese hearts representing a milestone in 3D scanning technology.