Just when you thought the selfie had been revolutionised, South Korea has come up with a newer, better way of preserving your memories.

South Koreans have decided that photo albums and regular photographs are too old-school and outdated. The newest, fascinating practice they have taken to is printing 3D figures of themselves.

It’s a daunting process, but when has that stopped anyone? And it’s at the opposite pole from the raise-arm-make-duckface-press-button school of photography.

It needs about one hundred DSLR cameras placed at different angles, all of them simultaneously taking 2D photos, to get an accurate 3D model. IOYS, a South Korean 3D printing firm, has launched multiple stores in Seoul, set up with column-shaped booths, for the pictures.

A digital blueprint is formed using these pictures at a plant in Seoul, based on which the 3D printing machine creates the figures, which can range in size from 2 to 12 inches in height, and are made using more than 1,000 layers of gypsum powder. These figures are then painted according to the photographs.

People have been getting figurines made of their children, their loved ones, and even their pets. “And some people who are in love with themselves,” as Lee Si-cheon, an assistant manager at Ioys told Reuters, are getting “selfigures”.

The figures cost anywhere between Rs 6,000 and Rs 18,000 when converted to Indian currency. For now, at least, Indians can add the cost of a trip to Korea to that price-tag.