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It's being dubbed the ultimate selfie, and promises to make anything taken on a smartphone seem… well, a little bit flat.

The next generation of self-portraits is here – fully detailed busts of a person's head and shoulders, made on a 3D printer.

Ryman – owned by former Dragons' Den star Theo Paphitis – is the first high street chain to latch on to the new trend, offering customers 4in-high plastic 3D busts of themselves for £50.

Revolutionary: The hand-held device will scan the contours of your face and reproduce a 3D plastic bust

Mr Paphitis said the level of detail that could be achieved was 'amazing'. 

People who wish to be 'printed' must first be scanned using a hand-held device which emits an infrared beam. 

This collects information on the contours of the person's head and shoulders, which is fed into a computer. 

Software translates this into a three-dimensional 'map' of the person that the printer reads, then recreates.

Not so instant: Unlike selfies taken on your phone, this nifty device takes 10 hours to create your image

However, unlike the smartphone selfie, the process is by no means instant – it currently takes ten hours. 

Mr Paphitis admitted the printing time was 'very, very slow'.

But he said: 'The speed will pick up exponentially, like computer memory has.'

Ryman stores will be selling personal 3D printers from next month, starting at £839.