Interesting HP Patent for 3D Printing

[intohim]

Guys, I saw this is the most recent patent filed by Hewlett Packard. It's so hard for me to understand though. It defnitely seems like they have some sort of different 3D printing technology. Can anyone make any sense of it?

Techniques for three-dimensional printing are described herein. In an example, a system is described for enabling a user to select a print setting specifically for a portion of an object to be printed by a 3D printing system.

The whole thing can be read at https://www.google.com/patents/WO201...ed=0CFEQ6AEwBA

It seems like the patent filing had some images attached to it, but I can't seem to find them anywhere...

[Brian_Krassenstein]

Interesting. I'm not patent lawyer, and don't have a tremendous amount of experience in interpreting patents. Seems like this is perhaps a patent for a technology which can print onto an already existing object, in order to add to that object. I am eagerly waiting to hear HP's announcement in June.

[ChiloquinRuss]

Having read through the patent briefly. I surmise they have a way for the user to select portions of the print to be printed using different parameters. Unlike my MakerBot which has one setting for the whole piece unless I want to go in and hack the template. But even hacking the template it is still a one time setting for the whole piece. The patent states that through the UI the user can 'adjust' settings for different portions of the 3d print. So for instance, one could have seperate settings for the raft, the supports, the main body, and for facial features. Sounds interesting. The patent also sounds pretty general in its description, might be difficult to defend in court. My 2 cents worth for today. Russ