June 18, 2008: Put A Factory On Your Desk

Looking for a way to prototype your 3D models quickly, but don't have a lot of room? Desktop Factory may have a solution for you, and for (just slightly) less than $5,000.

If you're going in the opposite direction -- physical to digital -- NextEngine will sell you a 3D object scanner for $2,500 or so.

So for less than ten grand, you can have a pretty complete prototyping rig, in just a few square feet. You could easily fit that into the trunk of a car, you were going for a long drive.

Or you could adapt it into a self-replicating robot . . . thingee. I'm sure their intentions are good, but didn't I see something like that on Stargate?

Thanks to Warren Okuma for the robo-links!
-- Paul Chapman