President Obama now in 3D

Obama 3D Printer - United States President Barack Obama now has a 3D version of his upper body all thanks to a 3D printer.

According to CNN, the first-ever 3D printed portrait of Obama, which is also considered as the first-ever 3D-printed bust of a U.S. President, is now on display at the Smithsonian Castle.

The Obama 3D Printed project was said to have been inspired by the like masks of President Abraham Lincoln.

"They're called life masks because these were directly taken from his likeness," Günter Waibel, director of the Smithsonian Digitization Program Office, said. "so there was plaster put on his face ... and seeing that made us think, what were to happen if we could actually do that with a sitting president, using modern-day technologies and tools to create a similarly authentic experience that connects us to history ... to a moment in time ... and to a person's likeness."

Though the masterpiece is nowhere near than Lincoln's. it is made special with the help of 50 LED lights, eight high-resolution sports cameras and six wide-angle cameras that spark for about a second.

"This isn't an artistic likeness of the President, this is actually millions upon millions of measurements that create a 3D likeness of the President," 3D digitization program officer at the Smithsonian Adam Metallo said of the Obama 3D printed portrait.

The Smithsonian team also used handheld 3D scanners to collect precise peripheral data of the incumbent US president, reports the BBC.

On Tuesday, the White House released a video showcasing how the 3D printed bust was created, according to MSNBC.

So why was the Obama 3d printed bust made? Tom Kalil of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy claims, "it's also part of a broader trend, and that is the third industrial revolution," which Kalil describes as "the combination of the digital world and the physical world."