HP Unveils CES Innovation Award Winner HP Z 3D Camera

CES 2018 may not start until tomorrow, but the new product announcements are emerging at a rapid rate already. Those products include plenty of 3D printers, 3D printing materials, 3D scanners, and other 3D technology-related innovations, and 3DPrint.com is in Las Vegas and ready to take a look at as many of them as possible. One of the new products being introduced comes from HP Inc., but it’s not a new 3D printer this year – it’s a 3D camera.

The HP Z 3D Camera has been awarded a CES 2018 Innovation Award, and it certainly is innovative. The camera was designed for 3D designers, CG artists, game developers and digital fine artists, and it works with the Sprout Pro G2, attaching to a computer display to capture and digitize 3D objects, 2D documents, and live video. HP describes the camera as allowing for a more immersive and human experience through live sharing; it brings into view the desk, hands, etc. to complement the webcam and screen sharing.

“The demand for 3D content has skyrocketed and 3D pros are constantly looking for new hardware and software innovations to increase their end-to-end productivity, from concepting to production,” said Louis Kim, global head of Immersive Computing, Personal Systems, HP Inc. “HP Z 3D Camera helps speed up modeling, reinvent the creative palette and protect the artistic point of view as more people enter the profession and workflows become increasingly automated.”

The design of the HP Z 3D Camera takes up very little space on the desktop, attaching to the back of the computer monitor with a magnet. The user can create lifelike digital images by rotating objects with their hands or positioning them under the camera. SLAM (simultaneous location and mapping) tracking and scanning technology constructs the 3D model in real time. Objects can be scanned with computer-graphics-friendly resolutions that maintain separate texture maps for physical-based rendering, virtual reality, augmented reality or mixed reality content creation. HP’s technology also generates document capture for things like OCR for document flow.

Extremely realistic texture expands creative palettes and speeds up modeling workflows for Windows 10 Creators users and other 3D creators. Users can share captures or live videos of notes and sketches directly from the desktop. The HP Z 3D Camera can easily export models to PowerPoint 3D, Paint 3D and Mixed Reality Viewer, making it easy for anyone using Windows 10 to utilized 3D capture technology. Adobe also recently announced its Dimension Tool, which is a 3D tool for 2D users that brings captures into a 2D workflow to create high quality images and control things like lighting, scale and texture all within the Adobe Suite.

The HP Z 3D Camera works well with products like ZBrush, Substance Painter and products from Autodesk. The camera is scheduled to be available for US-only release in March, retailing for $599.

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