Show HN: A web app to turn photos into 3D AR models.

[schappim]

Hi I'm Marcus (one of the creators). Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions :-)

We are "very alpha" right now.

Edit: We have an API over at: https://usdz.app/api

[armagon]

Hi Marcus.

It would be nice to have some idea going in for what the requirements are. - I have to admit, I don't understand why I can't preview the 3D experiences right on my computer. - Likewise, when I try the QR code on my iPhone 6 ... well, I'm hardly surprised to not see anything in 3D, but it wouldn't hurt to have a little more detail than "Scan this QR code on your iPhone or iPad."

I suppose I could mention that I've done some game development and a little bit of VR/AR, but have never heard of the USDZ file format before.

[ianbutler]

Hey very cool stuff, one piece of feedback it would be good to be able to delete models on the beta iPhone app, or if we can it’s not particularly obvious how to do so.

[nemacol]

Anyway to take a model that was created and get it into CAD / modeling software? I don't know much about VR/AR but I know it is a pain in the bum to replicate an object / create a model for 3d printing.

Thank you.

[porkbrain]

If it's not a secret, I'd love to read some design document about the backend behind this app. What's the blackbox that takes set of images as an input and produces a 3D model as an output?

[thih9]

Pretty cool!

How are you handling spam or other kinds of content moderation? Is it easier because users don’t upload a regular text/image and need to create something custom?

[tluyben2]

This is really great, thanks for doing this!

[hpen]

Hey have you guys considered licensing an API?

[genpfault]

What photogrammetry pipeline are you using?

[GistNoesis]

If you don't have an iphone, you can view he model by downloading them in the "options" drop-down menu to obtain the usdz file, which you can then use either with Pixar open-source suite https://github.com/PixarAnimationStudios/USD or other software that support the format.

Or you can use an online file converter like https://products.aspose.app/3d/en/conversion/usd-to-obj and see the result in Meshlab.

Direct in-browser visualization is possible but https://products.aspose.app/3d/fr/viewer worked but the scale was wrong and prevented to zoom enough.

You can also view some high quality scan in the Apple's demo https://developer.apple.com/augmented-reality/quick-look/

(Edit: The ones with the "Made with object Capture" label which this service is a front-end for https://developer.apple.com/augmented-reality/object-capture... ).

[schappim]

Yup, good tip. We gotta make it nicer for Android.

We have a USDZ to GLTF (Chrome/Android) converter too. We should make the gltf more readily available.

[zuhayeer]

Very cool, reminds me a bit of the photogrammetry software Autodesk has. Always thought it could be more "consumerized" so that a series of photos can easily be made into 3D models.

This was also a nice throwback for me to some drone photographs I've taken a while back at Berkeley stitched together into a 3d model: https://twitter.com/zuhayeer/status/933752635726880768?s=20

[schappim]

Thanks for your kind words! Ultimately I think this is going to be part of the camera apps or some built-in app. It is just a function of power.

[somishere]

Very Interesting project! esp. when compared to the swathe of junky or overly complex photogrammetry tools out there from a few years back (but mostly still polluting the app store)

I've only recently been trying out poly.cam which is probably the best example of a user friendly workflow ... but it's knowingly priced. Have you guys got a pricing model in mind? Also do you have any documentation around best practices/results, etc?

Anyway sounds like things are going to pick up again quickly with apple's new APIs. Good luck - exciting times ahead!

[nobbis]

As far as best practices, Apple has some documentation on how to use their photogrammetry pipeline:

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/capturi...

[schappim]

Thanks for the tip!

I'm making a "how-to" video now. I've yet to do the voiceover, but here are the raw slides: https://files.littlebird.com.au/take-great-shots-cXH2CM.m4v

The TL;DR is:

  - Avoid thin objects
  - Avoid reflective objects
  - Avoid transparent objects
  - Avoid objects that deform
  - Hardshadows are not good, use soft lighting
  - Your photos should have a crisp focus and be well lit (across the object) 
  - Things work best when the background has a solid colour
  - Make the object take up the full frame (more data for the algorithm)
  - Make sure to get shots from all sides

[fareesh]

Is there something like neutral lighting where a texture can be photographed and then the engine's artificial lighting makes it look realistic post lighting?

[machiaweliczny]

yes

[granto]

This looks great, congrats! I’ve tried a number of photogrammetry software and they typically had challenges. One question: are you able to determine the size of the object?

[hansoolo]

Thank you for making this! This is exactly the easy solution I was looking for a few days ago for a side project.

[darkteflon]

Looks Excellent! Going to try this out tonight in Final Cut Pro with the mTracker 3D plugin.

[schappim]

Nice! One tip, if you have Motion (which there is a good chance being a FCP guy, you do), you can import the USDZ file into Motion.

You can download the high quality version of a model here[1].

[1] https://files.littlebird.com.au/Shared-Image-2022-01-02-18-1...

[tomdekan]

This looks great. Unfortunately the app is not working for me on an iPhone SE 2020. I am getting an ‘Error accessing your camera. Please check your permissions’.

The permission to allow Hologrid to access my camera is correct in settings.

[wruza]

The dog is oriented in 3d somehow in a “_/_“ way, instead of lying on the floor.

Side question: how the site has access to my camera, when it’s set to disabled in my ios-safari settings? Settings - Safari - Camera - Deny.

[schappim]

Could be the difference between file upload (via camera) and media device access?

[edoceo]

Would love to see some examples of how to go from this into something like A-frame - or even a guide on how it might work?

[schappim]

Your wish is my command.

  - This is one I'm building for mobile (work in progress) [1]
  - This is one for desktop [2]

[1] https://files.littlebird.com.au/mobile-how-to-wip-BDikJ9.m4v

[2] https://usdz.app/screencasts/getting-started

[coolmitch]

testflight app doesn't seem to be able to access my camera (iPhone SE2) despite having permissions

[schappim]

Thanks for the report Mitch. We'll have to look into this.

[aero-glide2]

Does this have android support?

[schappim]

It will. We've been building the mobile app using a cross platform framework (Capacitor) with the view of making it Android compatible. Capacitor does the job, but we've had to do some native code to fill holes.

If you're a dev, you can also use the API: https://usdz.app/api

You could probably whip up a quick script that runs on Android. My first go of doing mobile (for enlisting my co-founder) was to use Apple Shortcuts w/ the API.

[abraxas]

I can downvote comments but not stories. Is there a karma threshold for downvoting stories?

EDIT:Ugh, sorry about this comment. Looks like I somehow posted it under the wrong story. No clue how this happened. Looks like I'm unable to delete it as the deletion time window has expired.

[sokoloff]

If you think it isn’t appropriate for the site, there’s a flag link. (I can’t imagine that applies here.)

[toomuchtodo]

Stories can’t be downvoted.

[etaioinshrdlu]

How many photos does it take?

I think an API for this would be ridiculously cool.

[schappim]

You need at least 20-ish, 70-200 make amazing objects.

There is a free API here: https://usdz.app/api