Ready for your Star Trek replicator (sort of)?

http://wimp.com/functionaltools/

Now if this is a hoax, they did a heck of a job on it.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

cool..

Now if it could replicate more beer for the fridge, I'd be impressed.

Well, they aren't actually replicating anything. The scanner only scans the surface of the object, so someone had to go in and add the missing sections of the two moving parts. The "Copy" is made of a composite plastic. It's not nearly as strong as the original. This is a really cool technology, but it's primarily used for prototyping right now.

I agree on that!

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

Yeah, the technology is impressive to me, and I think just in its beginning phase. I can't even imagine what it might be like in 30 years or so...

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

Somewhere in the Canadian North...

Computer.... lock on to Prom's beer fridge.
Pattern lock established...
Energize...

THRAWN!!!! Very funny, now beam back my beer. My replicator crashed.

How about a Food printer?

http://gajitz.com/digital-gastronomy-fo ... re-gadget/

Now here's something even more impresive though. A 3-D Bio Printer:

http://www.rdmag.com/New-To-Market/2009 ... nd-organs/

Oh cmon everyone. We all know this technology will be tested out in the porn industry first! They have the most money to work with.

Hmmmmm... All you would need is an MRI... and a really BIG one of those printers

I was actually thinking that you could clone human cells, and then print them into an adult human. This would eliminate the need for accelerated growth, or waiting years and years for your clone to grow up.

It always bugged me in sci-fi that they could create adult clones, but now it doesn't seem that far fetched to me...

Very cool video.


Though, I wonder if a 'copied' hand gun can be detected by airport x-ray scanners... but that's lame. no one would ever attempt that

The "composite material" is a form of pastic and not neary as strong as they claim in the video. It wouldn't be strong enough to fire a bullet, but I think there are synthetic materials that would work.

It's a composite resin that's being fused together. There are other materials that can be used. While far more expensive, laser sintering can also be used to fuse together metals in a 3D printing process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_laser_sintering

Very interesting link. The process could become much less expensive if there was a cheaper source of electricity. Sometimes I wonder if the big oil companies are intentionally holding back research into alternative power.

How about a portable fuel cell that can power my laptop for $500. Is this real?

http://www.horizonfuelcell.com/electronics.htm

An affordable hydrogen fuel cell powered car?

http://www.horizonfuelcell.com/automotive.htm

Can I power my home with one of these?

http://www.horizonfuelcell.com/stationary_power.htm

Electricity is an issue, certainly. Also, the cost of a
huge freaking pulse laser is rather important too.

The problem with a fuel cell is that it has to get its
power from someplace. That's why I'm a fan of home
passive geothermal. It's a cost effective way to heat
and cool a home for pennies, and if driven by solar
panels you can turn a hot day into free cool air.