A Japanese store has released a novel twist on the concept of face disguise, a hyper-realistic mask replicating every person’s facial feature in three-dimensional art.
The Artwork
These 3D, life-like masks are the work of Shuhei Okawara and may be purchased at Kamenya Omote in Tokyo, Japan.
It would take two weeks to make one after scanning a real person’s face and sending the data off to a printer. Glass replicas of the eyes are created by scanning individual eyes.
To produce and sell them, they have secured the approval of the mask’s likeness.
How it Started
In the fall of 2020, Okawara advertised that his mask shop would pay $380 (52,949 Japanese yen) to Tokyo residents whose faces were replicated into 3D-printed masks. Kamenya Omoto’s peculiar mask project is titled That Face, CNET reported.
Tokyo residents over the age of 20 were welcome to apply at Kamenya Omoto. If the face becomes successful, the owner will get a cut of the earnings.
According to Reuters’ 2020 story, Okawara received over a hundred portfolios from prospective models before settling on the one he paid a total of 40,000 yen to pose for him. The winning design was printed out on a 3D printer and then tweaked by a skilled artisan.
The masks retail for $950 (98,000 yen) each and are a popular item for parties and theatrical performances. Some masks, particularly those that need a license fee, may be rather pricey.
Owner Okawara offers his own 3D mask for the price of $560 (78,000 yen).
He intends to expand the collection annually by acquiring the rights to a new face.
Kamenya Omoto offers not only realistic face masks but also sells various handcrafted masks for theatrical groups. These portray evil spirits, ghosts, animals, and characters from classic folk stories.
“We stock a wide variety of masks, particularly of contemporary Japanese mask makers but also from many periods and regions,” as stated on Kamenya Omote’s official website.
Potential Harm
No matter how incredible this technology seems, truth be told that it can pose a danger.
In 2019, research published in the journal Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications found that hyper-realistic masks might be mistaken for actual faces, as reported by BMC.
A viewer’s ability to distinguish a mask from a genuine face may also be impaired if the mask mimics a different race.
Hyper-realistic masks are manufactured of silicone to simulate human faces.
Previous studies and criminal investigations demonstrate that these masks can pass for actual faces in real life. However, this may be altered by body language or viewer attentiveness.
Author Dr. Rob Jenkins said, “Failure to detect synthetic faces may also have important implications for security and crime prevention as hyper-realistic masks may allow the key characteristics of a person’s appearance to be incorrectly identified.”
