Smart phones have come out with advanced features that can be useful for medical diagnosis. The Iphone X has a face recognition function to unlock the phone which could actually be used as a full functional 3D scanner. Unfortunately, only a few app developers have seen the potential of the Iphone X. The Bellus3D IOS app is dedicated for face scanning with the option to export data in slt/obj format for analysis on other software platforms. The face scans can be performed in 30 seconds including processing. A hardware adaption was developed to perform 3D scans also in the direction of backside of the Iphone X. To test the resolution and color representation of the Iphone X, scans were obtained of face phantoms and compared with high-end 3D scanners (Artec Spider/EVA and Vectra) using deviation maps. The Iphone X/Bellus3D performed best for the front view of the face. Presence of hair resulted in distortion of the side view. The mesh density was around 0.6-0.8 mm which is less compared to the Artec scanners (<0.2 mm) but similar to the Vectra. The photographic layover has a higher resolution (<0.2mm) and the 3D mesh enables to locate facial features with <0.5mm accuracy on different scans over time. The Iphone X has potential to be used as a practical and relative low cost 3D scanner especially to provide absolute measurements of photographic facial features e.g. wrinkles, wounds, abnormalities for treatment/healing evaluation over time. The scans can be performed in a short time with real-time processing. App developers should become interested to develop dedicated apps for specific diagnostics and automated treatment evaluation.

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Rudolf M. Verdaasdonk and Niels Liberton, "The Iphone X as 3D scanner for quantitative photography of faces for diagnosis and treatment follow-up (Conference Presentation)," Proc. SPIE 10869, Optics and Biophotonics in Low-Resource Settings V, 1086902 (Presented at SPIE BiOS: February 02, 2019; Published: 4 March 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2511167.6008538153001.