Print Yourself in 3D

Since the early genesis of the brilliant Microsoft Kinect hack, inventive applications have been popping up nonstop. One of the most fascinating projects to surface recently falls within the realm of 3D printing. "Fabricate Yourself"—a hack presented at the Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction Conference in January—allows users to pose in front of an Xbox Kinect, which then converts a captured image into a 3D printable file. What does this mean exactly? Think Han Solo trapped in carbonite.

Developed by the Interactive Fabrication team at Carnegie Mellon University, the project was programmed by Karl Willis and the 3D models are made on a Stratasys Dimension Uprint 3D printer. Unfortunately, the average consumer won't be self-printing anytime soon—the Stratasys' entry level system for the office and home market costs a cool $12,000. Perhaps in a decade or so, we'll be able to print ourselves for low Best Buy prices.

VIA i.materialise