Tokyo designer Shuhei Okawara and a 3D mask with his effigy -

© S. Okawara 2020

  • In Tokyo, a designer offers 3D masks faithfully reproducing real faces.

  • Listed for a little over 600 euros, the first models quickly found buyers.

  • The first copies of these masks bear the effigy of the store's founder, Shuhei Okawara.

Tokyo, 2020. Mask shop Kamenya Omote has set up a strange service.

It offers city residents the opportunity to faithfully reproduce their face (small acne pimples and hair regrowth included) on 3D masks.

The store is ready to pay 40,000 yen (or about 316 euros) to volunteers who want to "sell their faces".

Listed for sale at 78,000 Yen, this mask quickly sold out © K.Omote 2020 / kamenyaomote.com

Hyper-realistic rendering

“Buy and sell faces.

A science fiction story come true.

Nobody knows what will happen in a world where other people will wear your face ”, we can read in the enigmatic description of this project called“ That Face ”on the store's website.

About a hundred people have already expressed their interest, reports

Vice

.

Not all faces will be selected.

On its site, the store specifies that neither the identity of the models, nor their personal information will be revealed.

The first copies of these masks bear the effigy of the store's founder, Shuhei Okawara.

They sold for pre-orders for 78,000 yen (617 euros) each and are already out of stock.

The rendering - hyper realistic - is obtained thanks to a 3D scan of the person's face.

The masks are then manufactured by 3D printing.

The details of the masks are amazingly realistic © K.Omote 2020 / kamenyaomote.com

The value of an anonymous face

Asked by Vice, Shuhei Okawara explains his strange project.

For him, "selling and buying faces" is the natural turn that a mask shop must take.

He says he is interested in the "value of anonymous faces", which he says will fluctuate.

The

International Business Times

media

imagines that these very realistic masks could be used to deceive facial recognition systems.

But it is not especially in the projects of Shuhei Okawara.

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The original article was written by Marine Protais and published on the DNA website.

  • Facial recognition

  • 3d

  • Face

  • Japan

  • Society

  • 3D printer

  • 20 minutes video