Trimensional Review

Trimensional is positively oozing with potential. An app that allows you to create 3D scans of things? How exciting is that?! It's potential that isn't fully exploited though.

The app's highly ambitious unique selling point is that you can create 3D models of anything you point it at. To do this requires some very set rules - you need a front facing camera (so you need an iPhone 4 or 4th generation iPod touch), you need to be sitting in a dark room and you need to set your iOS device screen brightness to maximum. The app does work without turning the lights down but it's not ideal. Don't expect to use this app while out and about.

This is all because the app relies on patterns of light and how it reflects in order to create the 3D image. The 3D models look quite good too. I'll save you from suffering seeing my face. They're not truly amazing, it all looks a little awkward, but then again it's not overly surprising considering how it's all implemented. It's certainly clever stuff.

The problem is, what do you do with this image? It's fun at first to take random photos and show people just how fancy your iOS device is but that's as far as it goes. It's a cool gimmick. You can email the images to your friends and save them to your camera roll but again, you'll only probably do this for the first few images. If you could export these images into a 3D design program, it'd be amazing although I'll admit to not knowing how plausible this is. Then again, I didn't think any form of 3D imagery would be possible with an iOS device.

Trimensional is clearly rather clever. After all, it doesn't have a depth sensor or anything to use and the results are pretty fancy. Considering the very low price of the app, Trimensional is worth a purchase, just don't expect to be using it for a very long time to come.