The Modern Ease of 3D Printing 264
An anonymous reader writes "What will it mean when 3D fabricators become cheap and common? A NY Times article explores the ease of copying objects by scanning them with NextEngine scanner and sending them to 3d 'print shops'. The experiments were done with Legos because most of the things around his office were protected by copyright. What will happen to the economy for engineering when we can just download a pirated description of a machine and 'print' it out? 'The world is just beginning to grapple with the implications of this relatively low-cost duplicating method, often called rapid prototyping. Hearing aid companies, for instance, are producing some custom-fitted ear pieces from scanned molds of patients. Custom car companies produce new parts for classic cars or modified parts for hot rods. Consumer product makers create fully functional designs before committing themselves to big production runs.'"
Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Great, so now when I'm in the tech room doing blow and the boss walks in I'll have a reasonable excuse: I'm prototyping my nose for a prosthetic. Never mind that not even a disfigured maxillofacial surgery patient would want my nose, but hey, the boss doesn't know that.
Obvious usage (Score:2, Funny)
Scanner (Score:3, Funny)
The NextEngine scanner can only do 6" scans, so we Canadians will have to wait a few more years before desktop penis scanning is the norm.
Re:Obvious usage (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Non-Usable (Score:4, Funny)
In most cases, from the examples I've seen, the rapid prototyping tools can't currently create a durable item
From my purchasing experiences in the past decade, it seems most items are not durable anyway. ;-)
-InnerWebPaper jams (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Star Trek really was ahead of its time (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Great! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Scanner (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Paper jams (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Scanner (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like your boss is already intimately familiar with it...
Re:Great! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Scanner (Score:3, Funny)
No worries - their web site says that a scanner capable of scanning objects as small as 2" will be available soon.
Re:Realigning teeth (Score:2, Funny)