The world of 3D imaging

I was recently looking and playing with the new tool of Google (well, atleast to me): Google Sketchup.
Imagine the endless possibilities of this tool. If we can model our homes (well, have the patience to learn the tool and then more patience to model our home), furniture shopping would be so much of a delight. It might be a shocking concept to us women - going to shop knowing EXACTLY what is needed. But for all we know, it isn't that much of a sin! The tool is owned by Google, so we could have a choice to save our models onto their server (much like we upload our pics on picasaweb or even this blog for that instance). I am not sure if you want to let other people search through these models, but it is not a bad idea after all. Google can allow ads of different furniture providers posted on their website. Pick the store and pick the piece of furniture from their website! Fit it in your 3D model. Voila! You have a miniature of your home being prepared. This can be accessed anywhere in the world! Once you have decided the exact furniture, you could either order it online (from the website itself) or you could walk into the store, pull up your model and purchase your piece. Now, I am wondering if I should extend this to actually using a 3D printer..well, that is a different thread.

The second application I can immediately see is in Clothes Retailers. Just as simple as your customize your Y! avatar (i.e if you use Y! msgr. Well, if you don't, I suggest you go to avatar.yahoo.com and have a look at the funky play tools). You can provide your vital stats, color of skin, hair, eyes, weight etc and get a 3D model of yourself. Wanna upload it, why not, feel free. Use this model while searching for clothes. Want to try the clothes? the concept should be as simple as Clink-n-Fit! Although the women folk might still not love the idea, I am sure the men would be thrilled to shave "valuable hours" off their shopping experience :).
More to come..in bits and pieces. Use your 3D tool to put them together :p

ps: Wonder why we don't have emoticons yet with Blogger..