3D Social Begins as Intel Adds Sketchfab to RealSense 3D Scanning

If Intel’s RealSense 3D camera is as good as is purported, the computing giant is already poising itself to conquer the digital 3D world. Its new depth-sensing camera is already integrated into a number of tablets, notebooks, laptops, and HP’s Sprout, as well as XYZprinting’s handheld 3D scanner. More importantly for the future of 3D is its incorporation into Google’s Project Tango, which could become the first smartphone with built-in 3D vision.

Consumers are still making their way into this 3D ecosystem, but when capturing the world in 3D becomes mainstream, they’ll need a place to share 3D photos and videos. And, today’s news from Sketchfab and Intel cements my certainty that Sketchfab’s 3D model community will be that place. In a blogpost published today, Sketchfab has announced that Intel has incorporated the 3D community’s API into the RealSense Software Development Kit (SDK). This means that any user of the now eleven or so devices incorporating Intel RealSense will be able to upload their 3D models even more easily to Sketchfab.

Mark Yahiro, Managing Director of New Business Perceptual Computing at Intel, said of the partnership, “We believe we are on the cusp of a digital revolution with the ability to scan real people, objects and places, and integrate them into our digital worlds. By making Sketchfab’s API available as part of the Intel RealSense SDK, developers can easily integrate any scanned object into their application and share it on their favorite social platforms like Facebook, as well as other digital spaces such as blogs and websites.”

This is just another huge brick in Sketchfab’s 3D wall, however. The company has already seen its API added to the Microsoft HoloLens, to begin shipping in early 2016, as well as other hardware and software solutions, including the Structure Sensor, the Fuel 3D Scanify, CadScan, Volumental, and Lynx A, in addition to Trnio, 123D Catch, PhotoScan, and Memento. Probably the biggest partnership the firm made this year was with Facebook, allowing Sketchfab users to share 3D models on the most popular social media site in the world. What’s different here is that RealSense is already out in the world and installed on what will be some very mainstream laptops, notebooks, and tablets.

This latest partnership, then, should cement Sketchfab as the leading 3D model sharing site on the web. The site is not just focused on traditional 3D modeling communities, such as video game designers and digital artists, but on the future of 3D, recognizing that, in the not too distant future, everyday consumers will be capturing 3D scans and videos and sharing them the same way we use Facebook. The following comments written by Sketchfab’s Corentin in today’s blogpost put it well enough:

We have always tried to represent the world around us. We started with charcoal drawings in prehistoric caves, then mastered the art of painting, and more recently developed advanced photography and videography techniques. But everything around us is in 3D, so why would we stop here?

3D capture – just like 3D printing – has been around for a long time, but has required advanced equipment and skills, limiting its usage to professionals. This is about to change.