Creating 3D scans of physical products has traditionally been a time-consuming process, often taking hours or even days to complete. Businesses have relied on methods such as photogrammetry-based apps and scanners, but these methods may not always provide the level of detail and realism needed for various applications.
To address this challenge, Italy-based startup Covision Media is leveraging AI and NVIDIA RTX technology to enhance 3D scanning processes and content creation. Covision Media’s AI-based 3D scanners enable customers to create digital twins of any product, including footwear, eyeglasses, sports equipment, toys, tools, and household items. By utilizing Covision’s technology, customers can quickly generate 3D scans that preserve detailed textures, materials, colors, and geometry to achieve highly realistic images.
The technology relies on NVIDIA RTX, which allows users to produce high-quality, photorealistic 3D models. Covision Media also incorporates neural radiance fields (NeRFs) to enhance the quality of 3D models by accurately capturing lighting, reflections, and transparent surfaces.
Adidas and its partner NUREG, a content creation studio, are among the early adopters of Covision Media’s 3D scanning technology for automating and scaling e-commerce content production. Covision’s 3D scanners are connected to workstations powered by NVIDIA RTX A5000 and RTX A6000 GPUs, which offer high ray-tracing performance and AI capabilities.
The collaboration with NVIDIA enables Covision to measure the lighting of scanned objects accurately, allowing customers to place their products in any virtual environment. Covision also leverages NVIDIA’s software infrastructure to develop AI solutions.
Covision’s technology allows for fully relightable 3D models, enabling users to manipulate the lighting in the scene. Partial scans can be merged to create a 360-degree scan of the product, suitable for extended reality (XR) environments. The company’s expertise in NeRFs enables the quick reconstruction of 3D shapes and appearances with just a few images.
Covision aims to integrate additional NVIDIA products and research projects into its solutions, including Nvdiffrast and Tiny CUDA. The company also plans to deploy a custom NeRF implementation, leveraging NVIDIA’s Instant-NGP APIs.
Adidas utilizes Covision’s technology to scan thousands of items each year for its online platforms. The 3D models have enhanced features like the Virtual Try-On, allowing customers to try on shoes virtually. Additionally, adidas uses the 3D models to create 2D virtual product photos and videos, replacing traditional product photography and reducing time and cost inefficiencies.
To scale the production of 3D assets, adidas collaborates with NUREG, a partner specializing in logistics, styling, and scanning. NUREG provides software tools and expertise in 2D and 3D production, making the 3D workflows scalable for thousands of assets annually. Covision and NUREG work with The Kow Company for post-production workflows.
Customers interested in Covision Media’s 3D scanners can purchase them for their own content creation studios or utilize scanning services provided by Covision’s partners in Europe and North America.