The True Importance of “The Notch”
Forget FaceID: The iPhone X ushers in a world of possibilities for mobile 3D scanning
In the month since Apple first announced their latest lineup of new products, the iPhone X, with its front-facing depth-sensing camera array, now being called “the notch,” has garnered the lion’s share of press and excitement. Numerous articles appear daily praising or damning the FaceID or debating the aesthetics of “the notch.” I fear that these discussions completely miss the point.
The iPhone X uses a 3D camera based on structured light technology to enable FaceID and Animojis, but I care little for FaceID or for Animojis. Instead, I am intensely keen on the technology behind the 3D camera that enables those features. Depth-sensing cameras, like the one Apple has chosen to deploy in the iPhone X, can be used for 3D scanning and this opens up a world of possibilities.
At Knockout Concepts, we are focused on utilizing mobile 3D scanning to usher in a new age of mass customization — an era in which everyone will have access to clothes, sports equipment, or medical devices (among other items), custom designed to exactly fit individual body shapes, forms, and needs. It is a vision of the future, enabled by new and improving technologies that can create fast and accurate digital models of the human body via 3D scanning. Companies can then quickly produce and manufacture designs based on those models through additive (3D printing) and other advanced manufacturing techniques. I believe that mass customization will have a tremendous effect on the world at large, that it can improve health and education outcomes for people all across the nation and around the globe. But there are still two primary obstacles in the way. First, the technology for creating all these custom products is still developing, especially with respect to the limited breadth of materials available for additive manufacturing; and second, we are not yet at the point where 3D scanning is easily accessible or available to enough people, although technological advances in the last 5–10 years have already greatly reduced the size and cost of 3D scanners.
Knockout’s mobile 3D scanner, the KS1, is indicative of the progress made in the latter direction, but a dedicated scanner remains a niche product that is not high on many people’s wish lists. On the other hand, the iPhone is an everyday device that is widely popular due to its primary functionalities. Including a depth-sensing camera in the iPhone X marks a turning point in the arc of 3D scanning access for the general public — and, consequently, a watershed moment for the move towards mass customization.
A few smartphones — notably Lenovo’s Phab 2 Pro and the Asus Zenfone AR — have already included cameras with depth-sensing capabilities, but the iPhone X is the first mainstream, highly publicized phone to sport a camera package that is capable of 3D scanning. Our hope is that this is not a one-off feature but rather a portent for the future of smartphones and mobile devices as Tim Cook claimed in Apple’s iPhone X keynote. We are looking forward to a future with depth-sensing cameras in every smartphone.
When that day comes, we will have access to a wide array of applications, right at our fingertips, and not just a 3D ghost emoji. It is not merely a question of creating a path towards mass customization; easy access to 3D scanning will also help enable improvements in the healthcare industry, simpler and more accurate workflows in engineering and design, and better results in areas even as seemingly mundane as auto insurance. That is why I find the focus on FaceID and Animojis terribly shortsighted and limiting. Though both of these applications are exciting and innovative (well — one of them, at least), the technology is capable of so much more. By lifting the limitations off “the notch” and allowing the depth-sensing camera to be used as it’s meant to be, we will open up whole new worlds in mobile 3D scanning, mass customization, better healthcare, better education, better design and better engineering: that’s what the future holds — and that’s the true importance of “the notch” on the new iPhone X.
