Imagine a world where if you want to produce a document at home you can write it out longhand or type it, on a typewriter. Where if you want a copy of a photo you go to Boots. And if your accountant wants a hard-copy of your figures you reach for you hard-back accounts ledger...
That's basically where we were maybe 15-20 years ago. PCs were rare in the home, and more importantly for the point I'm making, printers were even cheaper. If you DID have a printer odds are it would be a dot matrix - great for listings, bad for anything else...
Printers are now ubiquitous and life is much easier. jobs that would once have meant a trip to the printshop can now easily be done at your desk.
And where am I going with this? To the something that I reckon will be the next big thing. 3d printers.
Currently used in industry to create prototype parts and 3d models of designs units like the 3D Systems InVision XT 3-D Modeler are big, heavy and very, very expensive.
Not the sort of thing you're likely to find on your desktop any time soon.
For all that they're capable of creating very complex parts very accurately and in a variety of materials.
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So far, so good...but if you're never going to find that on desktop then what's the relevance? Well, as you'd expect with technology, prices are dropping and things are getting smaller.
 | Desktop Factory now produce the gadget to the left. Approximately $5000, weighing 90lbs and measuring 20" X 20" X 25" it can produce anything that will fit inside a 5" cube.
If that sounds big and expensive bear in mind that 10 years ago a colour laser printer would cost about that much and be about as big. It would also be soundly thrashed by a current model costing about £250....
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Another five years and I expect 3d-printers to be making an impact in the home. Imagine breaking the dial on your tumble dryer, being able to download a pattern and print out a new one! In ten years I'd expect multi-format printers to be fairly common - print out a bluetooth headset using metallic inks and multiple types of resins (well, maybe not, but simple electronics using ready-made chips, like remote controls could well be do-able). The possibilities are endless...
Thats enough blue-skying I guess...this is supposed to be OpenSkies, and so far there's been no OpenSource perspective.
So....how about a 3D Prototyping Machine that you can build at home and is fuelled by sugar? One that can make things like this:
It should also work with chocolate :-)
If you want to know more go here....
EvilMadScientist Candyfab.
