Further demonstrating its desire to see hardware move from the education space to the home space, Makerbot has announced plans to sell a 3D scanner geared towards replicating things you own. The hope is that, alongside one of its Replicator 2 printers, you’ll have a new Makerbot Digitizer.
There are dozens of different ways you can scan a 3D likeness of something into your computer. The increase in the popularity of 3D printing over the last few years has made some of these ideas more sensible than others, but all of them require some combination of cash and know-how. This is great if you are already the creative type, working to scan objects to integrate into an existing creation, but a 1:1 copy of something comes up more often than not as a practical home application.
Bre Pettis addressed a key issue pretty clearly in a presentation held yesterday. When something breaks in your house, there should be tools out there that allow you to fix those things yourself. Something simple like one of those pegs that hold up shelves on a bookcase, or a handle on a drawer that has fallen apart. If you had 3D scans of these things at your disposal, you could simply print yourself a new one when the time came. Of course, you could also print yourself copies of things you can buy from a store, but for the most part, the concept doesn’t seem to have any diabolical intentions. It’s not like you’re being encouraged to make 3D replicas of toys for your kids, right?
There isn’t a ton of information about the Digitizer available yet, but in the meantime the Makerbot team has a website open for you to submit ideas of what you would 3D scan. The Makerbot team will undoubtedly have them available soon from its NYC store, as well as online, sometime soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment