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Pez your own head

Hot Pop Factory is using a Microsoft Kinect and a Makerbot to create a Pez dispenser topped with 3D heads modelled from life.

Michelle Starr Science editor
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
Michelle Starr

(Credit: Hot Pop Factory)

Hot Pop Factory is using a Microsoft Kinect and a Makerbot to create a Pez dispenser topped with 3D heads modelled from life.

You know what's cooler than Mario, Aliens and Star Wars? You are. Which is why we think 3D-printed jewellery-maker Hot Pop Factory should bring its personalised Pez dispensers to the market.

The project was for a client who commissioned the dispensers as Christmas gifts for employees.

Their heads were scanned using a hacked Kinect and software ReconstructMe, which rendered the heads in 3D in real time; these 3D models were then cleaned up with MeshMixer, and parts were added so that the heads would actually fit the top of a Pez dispenser before they were printed using a MakerBot.

(Credit: Hot Pop Factory)

Unfortunately, Hot Pop Factory is located in Toronto, which means getting a head scan would be pretty inaccessible to most prospective customers, even if the company were planning to make the dispensers commercially available.

However, if you have the skills and access to a 3D printer, maybe you could try making your own. You can read more about Hot Pop Factory's process (and see more pictures!) on its website here.

Via www.gizmag.com