Pump Up Your Food Porn Game With This 3-D Photo App

From Dacuda, the Swiss software company behind the PocketScan, the 3DAround app allows a user to generate an image that can be spun and tilted.

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By Catherine Clifford

Dacuda

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

For many people, going out to eat has become as much about the photos as the food. The age of social media has born a whole new art of food photography.

If that's your jam, then you need to check out the app from the Swiss software company Dacuda called 3DAround. The app was the result of a technological collaboration between Dacuda and the University of Zurich's Robotics and Perception Lab.

Related: This Gadget Will Let You 3-D Print in Nutella

Once you download the app, which was made publicly available last month, you record images as you move around an dish and then the app automatically generates an image that a user can move all the way around.

"3DAround extracts a full 3D model of an image, capturing object depth and structure as users move around to take food photos from various angles. It combines these multiple images into a single, virtual 3D photo," says Alexander Ilic, the CTO at Dacuda, in a statement. "3DAround transforms standard single-camera smartphones into 3D depth-aware devices comparable to costly hardware-depth cameras."

Related: Scientists Can 3-D Print a New Windpipe on a $2,500 Desktop Machine

For example, have a look at this pancake presentation captured with the app. This is no stack and that's no snap.

The app comes from the maker of the PocketScan, a wireless handheld device that digitizes whatever image you move it over. A Kickstarter campaign for the PocketScan raised more than 10 times the $50,000 goal, bringing in over half a million dollars.

Have a look at this piece of chocolate layer cake being pimped out with the 3DAround app:


Related: No Sci-Fi Here: Your Own Personal Robot Is Coming
Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

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