Chocolate hearts for loved ones on St Valentine's Day are so last year - at least in Japan, where one Tokyo design firm offered its 3D scanner to help make miniature chocolate replicas of faces.
In a one-off celebration for Valentine's Day, KS Design Lab invited people to get themselves scanned by its 3D body scanner. The scans are used to create silicon moulds in the shape of their head. Participants pour chocolate into the moulds to make "mini me" treats on a stick.
"I didn't think it would turn out to look this much like me," said Mariya Kawae, 30, who planned to give her heads to her husband and work mates.
After the scan people were invited to edit their facial data on a computer before the data were sent to a 3D printer, the next step in creating the mould.
Once the mould was made all that remained was to pour in the molten chocolate.
After waiting 15 minutes for the chocolate to harden, each person had a replica of his head roughly 3cm long and mounted on a stick like a lollipop for handy eating.
Though each participant made only one chocolate head at the event, they were all given the mould to take home for use in making more chocolates, or perhaps even ice "cubes".
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