Israel physicists have developed a heat sensitive monomer. By attaching N-isopropylacrylamide to the surface of paper, and heating the paper to 33 degrees Celsius
the paper would into form different objects. These objects were as simple as wavy paper or as complex as an sombero. In the future similarly treated paper could produce an entire range of objects after being heated. These objects would form seconds to minutes after the paper came out of the printer. See http://www.engadget.com/tag/3d/ . What won't people think of next!

I had heard something about this a while back, but thanks for providing a link. I think the next thing they need to work on is a....food dispenser like on Star Trek. Hah, I'm such a nerd. But really, wouldn't you love to be able to have any sort of drink or food you want, and all you would have to do is say it to a machine? Yes, I thought so.

Well, fast food cartoons would be one of the first real-world uses, if it could bend thin cardboard.

This would be quite cool, but of course, for the first days it would be quite expensive, but with time I think that designing 3D objects with your computer at home will become cheap and almost everyone will be able to do it ;D Or the printer could even be able to use some kind of material like plastic or silicon or some gel and etc. For example, the future software such as Autocad, of course it is designed for a bit other things, but if a 3D model could be printed.. Personally for me, this feature isn't very needed, but still..

Ahh. Cool. Since they've already discovered this, I expect, if it becomes something everyone wants to develop, it'll be out in twenty years, though it's going to cost a lot. (I, obviously, wouldn't have one until about ten, twenty years after that, until the cost drops. XD) But maybe they could just continue development of those machines that can carve things out of a block of wood, metal, silicon, etc. and make them cost less. We'd still have 3D models, but just not made of paper from the printer.

Serena

This is cool. I doubt 3D objects will have that much of a market use, in case the printers are overly priced.
but it could be beginning of object printers.

Very cool!

A while back I stumbled on this: http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn...revolution.html
Although it is still pricey, it is relatively inexpensive compared to the industrial prototype fabricators. It is good to see that they are getting closer
to a product that could be used at home. I would be interested in seeing what people could do at home with these machines. I would love to be
able to pop out action figure prototypes and other creative projects.

This would be really great. And after a while, numerous industries will end up going out of business as it will be extra easy for the consumer to make products at home. Like if I wanted to make a toaster and I knew exactly what the components of the toaster are, I could probably design it and then "print" it at home instead of going out and purchasing it.

Of course, there will most likely also be some knew 3d design program that comes with premade designs for numerous practical household objects as well as the option to create your own objects. This is seriously a dream come true.

that would be scary but at the same time great

Not a bad idea although it would have a fairly limited use in industries revolving around word processing etc. But for things like design and visualisation this thing can be awesome, although i doubt this will be released any time soon since it needs to grab all sorts of info from a program then they need to design the 'printer' to 'make' the 3d shape.

-HellFire