Will 3D Printing Lead to a Utopia?

[heurlabs]

At Heuristic Labs, we always knew LazeeEye would be useful for 3D printing; and through discussions with early backers and M3D (famous for record-breaking Kickstarter success w/ the Micro 3D printer), we're becoming excited about the implications of being able to digitize real-world objects, manipulate them digitally, then reproduce them back in the real world. We like to think of this concept as"matter remixing," and if you skip the middle step of editing, it can be considered "3D photocopying."

Why is this important? Well, consider how difficult it used to be to sculpt a statue or a bust of a person: it would require a master craftsman (like Michelangelo) of great skill and many years experience, and it cost so much that only kings and nobility could afford it. The process itself might take hours, days, or years (depending on size and material).

Today, digital tooling makes processes like this easier: some steps can be automated, one can draw on a computer perfect circles/lines/planes, and of course there exists an "undo" keyboard shortcut. Moreover, you can duplicate your models with one click, keep components used often, and let others fork or build upon your work (and vice versa). Overall efficiency is clearly increased compared to the days of yore... but still, being able to sculpt a photo-realistic 3D CAD model of something with complex features - like a person's face - is an ability relegated to a select few experts - who still require significant training or experience or talent or expensive software - and it still takes a while (hours or days). The truth is: 3D modeling is not yet available for everyone, and we are confined to a world of 2D photos and 2D printers.

But no longer! With the advent of commoditized, high-fidelity 3D sensing (like LazeeEye) and 3D printing (like the M3D Micro, or even the Nomad CNC Mill), the power to remix your world is now available for everyone. It's inexpensive, fast, and can be done by anyone with essentially no training.

How inexpensive? LazeeEye is $75, and the Micro is $300. How fast? The "Nickentaur" took about 60 secs to scan from multiple angles, another 60 to automatically stitch the multiple views, 5 mins to find a free horse CAD model online, 5 mins to cut, position, and blend the human torso w/ horse hindquarters and probably a couple hours to print in 3D (in our case, we just uploaded to shapeways.com, and after $50 and 4 days shipping time... we had a precision-crafted 6-inch Nickentaur figurine! It felt quite kingly.

Other examples: want to personalize/monogram your iPhone case? Done. Cup holder doesn't fit your 64-oz Starbucks mochaccino? Scan it, scale it, print a slightly larger one.

In conclusion... if you want a centaur model of yourself, or mermaid, or you want to tweak or remix any real-world object to your liking... go check out and consider supporting LazeeEye on Kickstarter! http://kck.st/1gVCcrB