2. Digital bodies¶

Research & Ideation¶

describe what you see in this image

Digital Body - A 3D printed torso (from the neck down to the upper chest) of my husband in my lab. Apparently, he made it in a friend's lab. In other words, he’s going to make one of these for himself~.

describe what you see in this image

So, I thought about which part of my body I would focus on to create my own digital body. While exploring different ideas, I became intrigued by the image of my wrist with a bracelet on it.

Shinig hand:

As my digital body, focus on a part of it... particularly the wrist/hand and fingers. An image of light shining on the wrist, with the wrist itself glowing.

The bangles and such sparkle depending on how the light hits them.

References & Inspiration¶

While researching further, it suddenly occurred to me when I looked at my own wrist! I had been learning sign language, and when interpreting it, I often find myself looking at other people's wrists. I wondered if I could recreate the wrist expressing sign language with a digital body.

Speaking of hands, I have experience learning hand language to encourage children's speech development. Hand language is a language—one way to express and convey thoughts, opinions, and feelings. While I don't usually think about the beauty of hands, I've decided to start paying attention to it.

Process and workflow¶

◆Step 1 Scanner by i-phone application

There are some applications to do scanning:

-Scaniverse
-Polycam
-3d Scanner App

◆Step 2 　　 This time I used "3d Scanner App".

Try to do "Photogrammetry sccanning"

Did scanning for the souveniors of Bhutan.

Tried to scan my child's fingers.

But it dosen't work.

describe what you see in this image

I thought there shouldn’t be anything visible in the background, so I tried scanning in front of a wall that was a different color from my hand. However, scanning my own hand was difficult, and I wasn’t able to get a high-quality scan image.

※　Laser scanning

Laser scanning is a technology that uses laser light to measure the shape of an object with high precision. The laser is directed at the object, and the light that reflects back is captured by a sensor. The distance and shape of the object's surface are recorded as digital data. By repeating this process, a 3D model of the object is created.

Scanning with an iPhone app was quite difficult!

◆Step 3 　　3D printing

Although the scan data wasn’t of very good quality, I physically outputted it from the wrist scan data.

①　I used software to create and surface the missing part on the opposite side from the scan data.

②　I sliced the data of the completed surface using a mixer.

③　Output by 3D printer

◆Step 4 　　　How to use "Make Human"

I also tried creating body data using MakeHuman.

To download "Makehuman" ...had a problem so first I couldn't download. Took soooooo lomg time (many hours) to finish the downloading.

→ Change the version to be downloaded (not the lastest version)

→ Change the laptop/computer to be downloaded

→ Move to another place to connect the wi-fi according to Nuria's advice

Finally, when the laptop was connected to the public wi-fi, the download was done perfectolly.

In Spain...¶

After this, I stayed in Barcelona and León in November (from week 9 to week 11) and took the FabricaDemy course there.

＠LEON

I had my upper body scanned in León. I sat still without moving while my good friend in León, Adrián, scanned me with a scanner (A,B), moving around me as I sat. To capture every surface, he moved the scanner very slowly, for example, starting around my ear and moving it downward, then slightly shifting sideways before moving it upward again. He made sure to scan all the way over the top of my head. Then, he moved around me in a full circle. The important thing here was to ensure that nothing and no one appeared in the background!

And thus, "me" was created.(C) From the scan data, Adrián 3D-printed a miniature version of me, Mini Yuki, which I brought back to Japan! (D-1,D-2,D-3,D-4)

*Fils: Scannedme in Leon

@Barcelona

In Barcelona, I talked to my classmate Helma about how I still had unfinished assignments. When I mentioned that the scan hadn't gone well, she said, "The scanner in Barcelona is really high quality—do it here! I'll help you!"

When I told our instructor Petra about it, she said, "You should have told me sooner!" But fortunately, I was able to reserve the scanner, and they helped me with the scan on the day before I left—my last day in Spain. In the end, Petra handled the scanner, and Helma worked on the computer. It was a full-body scan.

*Fils: Scannedme in Barcelona

It seems that scanning wrists and fingertips is extremely challenging!

I am deeply grateful for all the support I received in Spain—in both León and Barcelona! In Japan, I balanced Fabricademy with household chores, parenting, and work, but in Spain, I was able to fully dedicate myself to Fabricademy. It was an incredibly intense and fulfilling time.