3-D Printers

Scientific American reports on printers that print 3-D objects:

George Jetson had one. So did Captain Picard. Now you too can tell a machine what you want and watch as it appears before your eyes. The technology goes by many names—3-D printer; rapid prototyper; fabber—but the concept is the same: Feed a device with blueprints for a solid object of your choosing, then let the machine build it for you from plastic or other simple materials.

Industrial designers have had access for years to fabbers that use powerful lasers to fuse plastic powder—great for mocking up jet turbines or architectural plans—but with a price tag of tens of thousands of dollars, 3-D printing has been out of reach for most of us. Now all that has started to change, as do-it-yourself types and imaginative engineers have found ways to bring the technology to the people. Here are five ways that you can harness the power of fabbing.

Read the article here. Imagine one day being able to print out a three-dimensional "photo" of your trip to Disney World! Or shots from your visit to Yellowstone. Or last month's coed of the month from your favorite bunny magazine. Oh, oh. If and when this technology matures, I suspect people will be printing a lot more of the latter, and less of the former. :)

In fact, like several innovations, I'll bet the adult industry will be an early-adopter of such technology, much as it did with video-on-demand and using the Internet as a delivery mechanism for its products. Eventually, acceptance and usage of the technology will percolate to the rest of us. Here's to progress!