Looking forward to the day when the user can capture viable 3D models for 3D printing using their phone.

I'm not into 3D printing, so I'm unsure of what viable means in that context, but for photogrammetry in general, I've had success generating 3D models of little figurines/statues with just a bunch (~15-20) of photos from my cell phone using Meshroom[1] followed by light touch up in Blender[2] to separate the environment from the model. Both are open source.

[1] https://alicevision.org/#meshroom [2] https://www.blender.org/

Recent Sony phones (1-2 years old) come with an app that does this with _really good_ results. AFAIK it only uses standard camera image + some AI magic.

https://3d-creator.sonymobile.com/

Fun fact: the team behind sonys algorithm were also behind apple maps 3d buildings.

Edit: the app itself, not sure if it works well with non-sony phones

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonymobile...

You already can! Check out the Capture 3D app for iPhones with face id.

Thank you for this! I have thought about how neat this would be since FaceID first came out, but I had always assumed the IR camera’s API wasn’t available to third parties. This is awesome.

Edit: Yikes. A bunch of these 3D scanner apps are very shady. Requiring an account and/or subscription. There is no way I’m sending 3D scans to some private server. I did find one that seems on the level: STL Maker. I’m sure there’s others, but users should be careful.

Well, just don't expect it to work in sunlight.

Why? The iPhone has had similar tech for years and it works fine in sunlight.