Their roots may be in software, but now the team is trying something very, very new. Occipital just launched a Kickstarter campaign for its very first hardware project: the Structure, a portable 3D sensor that straps to the back of your iPad that should ship by next February.

Update: Wow, the Occipital team has blown past its $100K funding goal in just over three hours.

“It took us out of our comfort zone,” CEO Jeff Powers admitted. “We went from a team of basically three to about 13, which is still ridiculously tiny, and no one sleeps anymore.”

Those sleepless nights seem to have paid off. The Structure itself is an awfully handsome piece of kit. Small and clad in colored anodized aluminum, it doesn’t look anything like the clunky 3D sensors you may have already been exposed to. That’s a testament to the sort of fastidious tweaking that went into making the Structure what it is – there’s a full-sized PrimeSense Carmine sensor in there, but it was up to Occipital to cut out the physical cruft so the Structure could fit in a pocket. Power consumption also had to be cut dramatically since it runs off the iPad 4′s battery (though it’ll technically connect to any iDevice in your arsenal that has a Lightning dock connector).

The really astonishing bit is how quickly the Structure works in capturing all of this data. Powers took the Structure and a few of the bundled demo apps for a brief spin in our New York office, and in a matter of mere moment he was able to capture a virtual bust of his ever-present marketing director and firing it off to Shapeways for printing. Scanning the topology of a side room was similarly quick, as was the process of throwing a virtual cat into the mix that would chase after balls that bounced off of 3D interpretations of couches and under coffee tables.

That breadth of those demo apps speaks to the sort of ecosystem that Powers hopes will rise up around the Structure in the weeks and months to come. After all, as neat as it is, the market for a gadget that lets its users capture and export 3D models for printing is still pretty limited. Powers’ vision is much more expansive: the SDK that’s being released alongside the Structure sensor will allow developers to build consumer-facing apps that take advantage of all that 3D data.

“We’re not really just building a device, we’re building a platform,” Powers said. As far as he sees it, Occipital can’t possibly build every possible augmented reality game or measuring app on its own. Instead, the team is going to make the low level data accessible to developers, and make high level APIs available to developers who know nothing about computer vision in a bid to make the Structure as accessible as possible.

It’s not hard to imagine the sorts of applications that could come along with adoption of the Structure. Looking to buy a new couch? Scan your living room and see if that sucker fits next to your bookshelf. Real estate agents could benefit from easy-to-capture, manipulable models of office spaces and homes (though some startups already have a head start on that front). Thankfully, while the Structure is designed to fit on the back of your iPad, ambitious devs can use connect to PCs, Macs, and Android devices thanks to a so-called hacker cable that allows for a standard connection over USB.

At first glance, this whole thing seems like a drastic shift for a company that has only ever focused on crafting software, to say nothing of on the production perils and pitfalls that come with building hardware at scale. That’s not to say that Occipital’s 3D ambitions have come completely out of the blue though. Earlier this year the company closed its acquisition of French startup ManCTL, which was best known for a 3D scanning desktop app called Skanect that let users fire up cheapo 3D sensors like the Kinect or the Asus Xtion to capture 3D data and convert them into full-color models in a matter of minutes.

Structure, then, seems like the next logical step. It’s a convergence of two seemingly divergent realms of expertise, and it’s arguably happening at just the right time. Smartphones and tablets are growing more capable by the day, which leads people to expect more from their daily companions. And with 3D printers moving into the mainstream, there’s a growing sense of awareness around the value of converting objects and environments into 3D representations.

Even the Kickstarter campaign is a sign of the times. Powers concedes that Occipital doesn’t actually need to go the crowdfunded route – he says they’ve got enough left over from its previous funding round to cover these very early production runs – but it couldn’t hurt to help build buzz among developers and gauge demand for a pricey tablet add-on. If you’re interested in throwing your hat in the ring you can lay claim to an early adopter package for $329, but the package will cost you $349 if you wait too long.

Source: Techcrunch.com

The app features roughly 20 categories at launch, mainly jewelry and tech accessories like iPhone cases. The items, which start at around $9 for an iPhone case and go up as high as $350 for a metal ring, can be configured then ordered directly in the mobile application. Ebay’s partners will then ship the products directly to consumers within 7 to 14 days.

3D printing technology is now gaining mainstream interest and awareness. A wide range of creatives are making art – not just guns – using 3D printers and software, then selling their wares everywhere from offline shops and museums to online storefronts and personal websites.

Ebay’s move to promote 3D printed goods comes at a time when other major retailers are also buying into the trend. Staples announced in May it would begin selling 3D printers, for example, and Amazon launched its own 3D printing store in June. But in order to buy the output of the devices, non-geeky consumers are often still shopping sites like like Shapeways or Etsy, or maker marketplaces like Custommade, Makeably, or recently launched Mixee Labs, for example.

Shapeways, which raised $30 million in Series C funding this April, has been especially instrumental in making 3D printed goods accessible to more of a mainstream user base. Even if you’re not interested in the still somewhat complicated process of designing original products, the site lets users shop a variety of print-on-demand goods, or even turn their own ideas into products using one of many ready-made apps.

Meanwhile, though eBay sellers have offered a variety of 3D printed items for purchase on the site, there wasn’t an easy way to browse those items or figure out which ones could be further customized. The new eBay Exact app changes that, though eBay’s choice to launch it as a standalone application may limit its exposure.

The app also serves as another potential revenue stream for the company, which could grow the more popular 3D printing becomes. Though eBay didn’t disclose the terms of its deals with its 3D printing partners, it’s likely that it’s seeing a portion of those sales it facilitates. In addition, eBay-owned PayPal is integrated for easy checkout.

"Shoppers today not only want to buy items anytime, anywhere through mobile devices, but they also want to be able to personalize their purchases", said Steve Yankovich, Vice President of Innovation and New Ventures for eBay, in a prepared statement. This is the common belief among those hyping the 3D printing trend, of course. But even if consumers are more aware of the possibilities, the market is young. To what extent consumers will demand, seek out and purchase 3D printed, or otherwise customizable, goods still remains to be seen.

Source: Techcrunch.com