Posted on Friday 27 October 2006
I don’t recall if I’d previously read about this or not, but I’d not seen it: the Fab@Home additive-process, rapid prototyping device (Link), here shown creating a watch strap. It’s a nice resource site with plenty of information and apparently plenty more to come. I’ve not done much more than skim through the site but it’s a link I’ll be visiting with some regularity.
Besides the device itself, of interest to me both on the Fab@Home site and on the RepRap blog which alerted me to it a couple of days ago (Link) are discussions about 3D fab catalogues. There is a “Printables” library (Link) on the Fab@Home wiki and a new, anticipatory centralized location for RepRap parts (Link) that seems… ambitious. I’ll be very interested to see the first fruits.
Probably goes without saying that I’ve been thinking about just such things for quite some time. Recently I told someone how an immersive 3D catalog might be accomplished (I’ve been grinding on how to do it for years – since I first started modding Quake 3 – but I’ve always run into content theft issues). Maybe they or someone else will get something like it up and running. It’d be a trip to have that weapons warehouse scene from “The Matrix” play out in a virtual world.
{Image source: Fab@Home}
[...] With the advent of services such as fabjectory and now having come across this fab@home on the rebang blog it would seem we are beginning to get the glimmers of where all this Second Life and metaverse technology may take us. What was holding back home fabrication was a way to create and distrubute 3d models suitable for home fabrication. We previously had also been lacking the social, open source, user created content skills and acceptance of this being a way to work. Now we have the collision of both, Second Life an ability to share and experience 3d models, and easier ways to build in 3d and then eaiser ways to fabricate. There may be environmental reasons to home fabricate, or at least local area fabrication. Whilst the fabrication materials have to be shipped to the point of use they must travel much more efficiently that odd shaped products on a lorry. Consumers also have to travel less distance in order to receive their product. True the fabrication units are using electricity and chemicals, but I am sure that a trade off and carbon footprint can be established and measured for this. If nothing else we are learning to all be both consumers and providers of service. Its very “Long Tail” to consider selling specialized things, one or two in a run to customers who really want the widget. If nothing else the need to hold products, to feel form factor and to have an increased attachment to the experience whether in Second Life or Real Life will drive this to a commercial size proposition. I would love Yossarian’s Hursley House printed out on my desk. I really want my custom Reeboks from SL in RL. All images from Snapzilla [...]