Smithsonian creates 3D portrait of Barack Obama
Smithsonian uses the latest technology to create the first 3D portrait of a sitting president
A team at the Smithsonian Institution has scanned US President Barack Obama to create the first 3D portrait of a sitting president.
The Smithsonian team scanned Obama earlier this year using two distinct 3D processes. Experts from the University of Southern California used their "light stage" face scanner to document the president's face from ear to ear. The team also used handheld 3D scanners and cameras to record 3D data to create a bust of the president.
Similar life masks were created of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, using plaster casting, and they are kept in the Smithsonian collection.
"We were really inspired by our experience with the Lincoln life masks," said Gunter Waibel, director of the Smithsonian's digitisation programme that has made 3D scans and prints of Lincoln masks from early and later in the Civil War.
The Lincoln masks have proven especially popular with school groups using the Smithsonian's 3D scans.
"There's a very, very deep connection that gets made when you have accurate data of a person's face and that person was a part of history," Waibel said. "People really felt the Lincoln life masks deeply spoke to them and connected them to a place, a time, a life and ultimately a legacy of the 14th president."
But past presidential masks were created through plaster casting that required a president to sit with plaster on his face, breathing through straws stuck in his nose.
So the Smithsonian set out to update that process with 21st century technology to make it fast and easy.
The team proposed a scan of Obama about a year ago, and the White House agreed. Obama joined them for 15 minutes in the White House. The actual scanning took about five minutes.
"You can see down to the wrinkles in the skin and the pores on his face," said Vince Rossi, a 3D imaging specialist.
