It is a shame that this demo wasn’t with anything running Android, however it is mobile related and it is rather cool technology. For those not familiar with the MakerBot Replicator, it is a desktop 3D printer that you can use to print out things like, well, cases for your smartphones. The MakerBot Replicator 2, which is the fourth generation is said to the “best desktop 3D printer on the market.” The unfortunate part here, with a price tag of more than $2,000 this is not something the average home user is going to purchase, or even see.
Enter a demo like this which came out of Mobile World Congress 2013. This came as a result of Nokia releasing their own 3D case printing files back in January. At the time they released case files for the Lumia 820, however this demo had cases being prepared for the Lumia 820 and 520. Basically, what you see in the images here are cases that were created using the MakerBot Replicator and publicly available files.
As you can see from the images here in the post, some of the cases are just a single color and some are multi-color. There is also the option to do some cool stuff, such as adding a little key pocket on the back of the case. Personally I can think of a better way to carry my house key, however the fact that this could be done at home with a printer is pretty cool. Even putting that aside, the idea of being able to print out some cases with a logo and/or name sounds like it could make you the envy of your friends.
Well, the envy of your friends or the guy who is constantly getting asked to make a custom case. Anyway, make sure to check out the above video to get a brief idea of just how these machines do the printing. So how about it, anyone ready (or even considering) taking the plunge and picking one of these up for for your home office?
[via SlashGear]
