"3D modeling will be the next major media"

Generative artificial intelligence(AI) has taken the world by storm. ‘ChatGPT’ is one example of generative AI. There is a company that has been developing the technology since the term was still new.

It is ReconLabs, known for its expertise in 3D modeling. This company launched its service even before the release of 'DALL-E' and 'Midjourney'. Since then, the company has successfully become the leading company in its field in South Korea in just about a year.

Seonghoon Ban, the CEO of ReconLabs, whom we met at CES 2023 in Las Vegas last January, was busy preparing to extend his business abroad. We met him again and heard about his plans to expand his business overseas and business strategies utilizing generative AI. [editorial comment]

"We are participating in the NVIDIA Developer Conference 'GTC', which is held starting on the 24th of this month, as a 3D technology representative. I have been asked by NVIDIA to lead a session in this field."

Seonghoon Ban, the CEO of Reconlaps, has pointed out the company's internationally recognized technological expertise as its greatest strength.

The company was recently selected for NVIDIA’s 'Inception Program', which is a partnership program for big data and AI startup companies. The company also formed a service partnership with Sandbox, a global metaverse company.

"We are planning to release our new product ‘3Dpresso’ which is based on ReconLaps' leading technology ‘MetaRECON' within this month. We have included the expertise we have accumulated over the past three years and our determination to expand our business overseas."

Ban was very positive about the potential of overseas markets. He saw the potential at CES 2023, which they participated in earlier this year. The fact that they have made all the menus for the new product in English is also in line with their expansion.

Additionally, their new product, '3Dpresso' provides services for 3D creators of games, videos, and metaverse.

In addition to scanning objects to create 3D models, 3Dpresso will have a new function that transforms the results into various styles. It also provides a community section where users can share their creations and insights.

"We are planning to expand our business by participating in the Game Developers Conference(GDC), which is held in the United States in May. There, we will engage in full-scale marketing efforts. And considering the companies that we are in the process of making business matches with, it won’t take long to enter overseas markets." Said Ban. 

At the CES 2023, ReconLaps attracted huge interest from companies in various fields such as e-commerce, Augmented Reality(AR), Virtual Reality(VR), autonomous driving, digital twins, animation, and games.

It was because of the unique performance of MetaRECON, which completes real-life 3D assets without using separate equipment that is clearly distinguished from other 3D construction services.

Ban predicted the future of 3D modeling as follows: "The demand for 3D modeling will continue to grow. The performance of AR/VR headsets, including the metaverse, is steadily evolving, and the computing power needed to implement 3D models is increasing at an astounding rate. 3D modeling will certainly rise as a major medium."

He got into the 3D modeling business because he was well aware that 3D modeling work is laborious and time-consuming.

He has been active as a VR media producer since his days as a graduate student at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST) of Culture Technology (CT). He also lectured at universities. Then he founded Recon Labs with the desire to create a service that could easily create 3D content.

The fact that the core technology of Recon Labs is the technology of generating 3D objects through 3D modeling is not irrelevant to the background of its establishment.

Ban was aware of the limitations that 3D scanning alone could not perfectly reproduce a 3D asset. So he added 'NeRF (Neural Radiance Field)', a generative AI technology that was just emerging at the time.

Through this, it was possible to supplement 3D assets and add technology and AR functions to create a screen that can be rotated 360 degrees. The field that can best apply this function to the actual industry is e-commerce, which Recon Labs has been focusing on so far.

The business model developed this way was 'Flicka', launched early last year. It is a service that creates a 3D asset by uploading an object photographed with a mobile phone to the web, showing the product in three dimensions, or containing additional information. The company was able to attract great responses from e-commerce companies that wanted to create digital showrooms or catalogs.

The 3D and AR virtual exhibition halls displayed on the 'Body Friend' website were also built with Flicka. The number of customers has increased to about 80 companies within a year. The company is currently discussing with KT Commerce how to apply 3D and AR.

"Flicka's strength is, above all, the quality of 3D assets that are indistinguishable from live action." Ban said confidently. "Other companies have similar technologies, but we are the best in terms of quality." He added.

Based on its technology, the company attracted a total investment of 5.5 billion won from Naver, Kakao, and Lotte in May last year. The number of team members, which had been around 10, has increased to about 40.

ReconLabs even plans to release generative AI services such as "DALL-E" and "Midjourney" in the future.

It is developing a "text-to-3D" generative AI that creates a 3D model when the user inputs the desired content in words. In addition, the ‘Sketch to 3D’ model, which transforms hand-drawn sketches into 3D models, is being promoted as a government research project.

Regarding this, he said, "The 'text-to-text' generation AI technology has already been proven with ChatGPT." and added, "The goal is to implement 'anything to 3D,' which converts anything such as sketches, voices, texts, and photos into 3D models."

At the same time, he said, "The value of 3D model-generating technology will grow at a different level in the future, and "Replica" will be at the center of its growth."

Reporter juyoung Lee (juyoung09@aitimes.com)