Now this is a gap in the market no one had seen before. Plucky Japanese start-up Real-f offers you the chance to 'see yourself' as never before.

For ￡2,500 (yes, really) - or $3,920 - the company takes digital stills of your face, then moulds them over a 3D model to create a hard vinyl chloride 'face'.

The resulting model is called a 3DPF - 3 Dimensional Photo Form. If a face isn't quite enough, then you can opt for a full head and shoulders.

The company describes its process as a 'human photocopier'.

Oddly, it's not the first start-up to offer human face masks featuring your own face - but it's by far the most realistic.

Real-f claims you can discern individual bloodvessels and irises in the models.

'We have progressed from monochrome to colour, now is the era of the 3D stereoscopic effect,' it says.

The one thing Real-f fails to address is what the point of it all might be - except to suggest that you could put the 'head' model (about twice the price of a mask) on top of a mannequin.

Whatever you use them for, expect to wait two weeks for delivery.

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)