While it may sound futuristic, 3D printed foods are here.

A lot of the work is still in its early stages, with researchers at Cornell and MIT developing 3D printers made specifically for edible products. But there are also some commercial projects underway. Barilla, Hershey's, and Mondelez International are just a few of the consumer food brands exploring the potential of 3D printing.

Check out these 3D printed Oreos, customized via Twitter suggestions.

At this year's SXSW, Mondelez International 3D printed custom Oreos based on what was trending on Twitter with the hashtag #eatthetweet. SXSW attendees could choose from 12 flavors including banana, mint, birthday cake, and lime, and then select either a chocolate or vanilla base for the cookie. The Oreo would then be printed in two minutes.

Apparently the cookies tasted like regular Oreos, but they fell apart a bit too easily.

The 3D printing machine was created by MAYA Design using a Delta Bot 3D printer, but at this point it will probably still just be a fun marketing stunt as opposed to something you'd see in a grocery store.

Structur3D Printing printed up some cool Nutella creations.

3D printing startup Structur3D created a 3D printer add-on called Discov3ry, which can create a paste from all sorts of materials, including plastic, silicone, wood filler, and yes, Nutella.

At this past year's Maker Faire show, Structur3D demonstrated how it could print the Maker Faire logo with Nutella. Besides the Nutella creations, the add-on can also be used to print intricate cake decorations or complex designs using icing sugar.

The Discov3ry is available for preorder for $349, but you'll also need to have a 3D printer that is compatible with the add-on. The device is set to ship in December. 

3D Systems is working on releasing a kitchen-ready printer that would let you print out elaborate confections.

In January, 3D Systems announced that it was getting ready to sell ChefJet, kitchen-ready 3D printers to create edible products.

The printer was showcased at CES and is targeting the average consumer, who probably doesn't have much experience with 3D printing. A complimentary "Digital Cookbook" will let users easily select a design to print out in a variety of materials, including chocolate, vanilla, mint, sour apple, cherry, and watermelon.

They're aiming to launch two printers by the end of 2014 with the monochrome version in the sub-$5,000 price range and the full-color, larger printer in the sub-$10,000 price range.

The aerospace industry is betting big on 3D printing technology, otherwise known as additive manufacturing. Industry giants like Lockheed Martin and Honeywell are incorporating additively manufactured components into their designs, and GE Aviation is investing $70 million in an Auburn, Alabama factory to make 3D printed fuel nozzles for its LEAP jet engine. What used to require welding together 20 parts now requires printing just one.  

"We get five times the durability. We have a lighter-weight fuel nozzle. And we frankly have a fuel nozzle that operates in an environment more effectively and more efficiently than previous fuel nozzles," Greg Morris, who leads the additive manufacturing team for GE Aviation in Cincinnati, Ohio, tells Business Insider. 

Additive manufacturing now represents a small, $3 billion slice of overall manufacturing output. Morris predicts that number will soar in coming years — to some $100 billion.

Produced by Graham Flanagan.

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SEE ALSO: Doctors Show Why 3D Printing Holds 'Limitless' Potential For Medicine

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The ability to design and print replacement body parts that are customized to an individual's needs is revolutionizing medicine.

This year alone, doctors have printed tubes that stabilized a child's collapsed windpipe and they've installed the first ever 3D printed vertebra in a 12-year-old boy.

Now, in a surgery that was one of the first of its kind, doctors replaced part of a Chinese man's skull with 3D printed titanium mesh that was molded to perfectly restore the part of his skull that had been smashed in an accident.

In October of 2013 the man, a 46-year-old named Hu who lives in a town near Xi'an, was working on a construction project when he fell. He plunged three stories and smashed his head on a pile of wood. The fall caved in a significant portion of his skull, damaging his brain, causing vision loss, especially in his left eye, and depriving him of most of his ability to write and speak.

Doctors at Xijing Hospital in Xi'an brought in experts from around the world to try and figure out how to restore some sense of normalcy for Hu. They decided to scan Hu's head and 3D print a titanium mesh replacement for part of his cranium, modeled after the right side of his head in order to give him a symmetrical appearance.

Even more impressive, his doctors think that after his brain has time to repair itself and grow within its new titanium structure, Hu should regain some of his lost ability to communicate.

Local news reports showed him smiling and excited before the surgery.

With printing materials specially made in Belgium and provided by Stryker, an American medical device manufacturer, Hu underwent surgery on the morning of August 28. After, he was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit to recover.

Titanium is a common replacement material for bones since it usually doesn't cause any adverse reaction — U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords had part of her skull patched with titanium mesh after being shot in the head in 2011 — but they still have to ensure that Hu's system doesn't reject the transplant.

His doctors, however, believe the transplant will be successful.

New Bones And A New Life

While this is one of the first transplants of its kind, medical developments in 3D printing technology have been offering people the chance at a new life all over the world.

The first ever complete 3D printed skull was implanted in a woman earlier in 2014. Without her new plastic cranium, a rare bone cancer would made her skull grow too thick and eventually would have killed her.

The Food and Drug Administration approved implants for facial reconstruction in August, and researchers are looking into ways that 3D printers can replace veins, skin, and other organs too.

As this technology continues to transform what doctors can do, more and more people suffering from grave injuries and diseases will have a previously unimaginable shot at a new life. And that's pretty amazing.

SEE ALSO: This 3D Printed Vertebra Is A Huge Step Forward For Medicine

READ MORE IN THIS SERIES: GAME CHANGERS

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At the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago, Local Motors 3D printed a plastic car called the Strati in front of thousands of attendees.

Local Motors took the chassis, seats, door panels, and thousands of other components, and 3D printed all those parts into just one piece. The first phase of the process, completed on Tuesday, took just 44 hours. 

"A 3D printed car like ours will only have dozens of components," Local Motors engineer James Earle tells Business Insider. In the near future, he says, it could cost only about $7,000 to manufacture, perhaps the start of what will become a niche market for customized cars.

"You can make a vehicle for yourself that's basically a one-0ff, do the entire design," he says. "You could create custom-fit seats that conform to your shape, things like that, that you couldn't do with cars now."

Produced by Will Wei.

GAME CHANGERS: Check out more in this series

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Plastic. That's the material many people think of when they hear the term "3D printing."

Today, there's so much more to it. Here’s a sampling of some of the more exotic materials now being used in 3D printers — an indication of how the technology is revolutionizing virtually every industry:

SEE ALSO: The Most Interesting, Non-Obvious Things You Can Make At Home On A 3D Printer

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There are a number of 3D food printers on the market, promising to print everything from pasta to Nutella. But most simply create shapes from pre-prepared ingredients. 

One company, however, has gone a different direction, designing 3D printer that turns sugar into gorgeous geometric confections in your own kitchen.

“They work a lot like making frosting,” Liz von Hasseln, co-inventor of 3D Systems' ChefJet, told Business Insider. “If you’ve ever made frosting and left the bowl overnight in the sink, you’ll know that it gets quite hard and that’s essentially what happens inside the ChefJet Printer.”

The project started when von Hasseln and her husband Kyle, who were graduate students at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, forgot that they were supposed to bake a birthday cake for a friend. Their tiny apartment didn’t have an oven, but they did have the 3D Systems printer they were using for their thesis project. 

After tweaking the existing technology to print layers of sugar, they printed their friend’s name as a cake topper and a business was born. The von Hasselns quickly realized the potential of their invention and established Sugar Lab, designing and printing 3D candies in flavors like mint, sour cherry, and vanilla.

Sugar Lab was purchased by 3D Systems last year, and now the von Hasselns are the company's Creative Directors of Food Products. Later this year, they will unveil their sleek ChefJet, which prints in black and white, and slightly larger ChefJet Pro, which can print in color, with prices ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.

The machines are roughly twice the size of a microwave and look like something one would see on a futuristic cooking show hosted by Spock. 

And the possibilities with sugar have gone far beyond the candies Sugar Lab originally printed. “We’ve done everything from drink sweeteners to complicated toppers for elaborate wedding cakes,"von Hasseln said. "We even did a cake stand for a wedding cake. When you 3D print the frosting, it becomes a structural component of the dessert other than just an embellishment.”

The end results are gorgeous, geometric creations — especially with the ChefJet Pro, which can make such exact color designs that the end product resemble expensive china. 

The technology is still limited to sugar, but the ChefJet and ChefJet Pro come with a sort of “digital cookbook” that’s organized by food types. If you’re working on a wedding cake, there’s a cake section. If you’d like to make sugar cubes or candy, there’s a section for that, too.

“We want to enable people to be able to create beautiful, customized things that they can print on the ChefJet without having to learn 3D dimensional digital modeling from scratch,” von Hasseln said. “We’re working hard to make sure they’re very user friendly and intuitive right off the bat.”

But don’t expect to run out and buy a ChefJet or ChefJet Pro anytime soon. In its current iteration, ChefJet is meant for the professional market, to be used alongside other industrial kitchen equipment by pastry chefs, molecular gastronomists, and mixologists. 

“We are looking at the ChefJet printer as a professional-grade machine,” von Hasseln said. “The ChefJet and ChefJet Pro are really the only printers on the market that are appropriate for that level. They’ll be the first kitchen-certified 3D printers, meaning they’ll be used in commercial, professional settings. No other 3D printers have done that.”

In other words, this is not the next microwave — yet. But as the science continues to evolve, von Hasseln does see additional practical uses for her invention.

“We think that sugar is a great place to start 3D printing food,” Liz said. “But beyond sweets, we see tons of potential for other edible substrates. We’re really excited to continue to experiment with starches, spices, or even proteins down the line. And even further down the road, we see potential for things like personalized nutrition and pharmaceuticals." 

“We’re at the very beginning of 3D printing,” she added. “This is a very exciting time.”

SEE ALSO: From Oreos To Nutella — The Latest 3D Printed Foods Are All 100% Edible

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The best thing you can 3D print for yourself in 2014 is . . . yourself.

I previously wrote about my adventure to the "Inside 3D Printing" conference in Manhattan.

It was there that I discovered a booth run by The Bobble Shop, a French firm with a franchise in Washington Heights that featured a machine that looked like this:

I put my head inside, and it took a 180-degree picture of my head. 

One week later, I got a small package in the mail containing a figurine that featured my face sculpted onto a model of a character I can only describe as the blonde long-lost half-brother from Raiden from "Mortal Kombat."' 

The one I got doesn't actually Bobble — I didn't totally love the character options for the ones that did. The choice seemed to be between a guy in Army fatigues, and Star Wars characters, like this:

One could argue that not since the advent of photochemical material has there been this kind of technological leap in the ability to reproduce one's likeness. It has absolutely no utility, and freaked a couple people out. But most got the joke, and it remains funny to look at.

There are several locations, in Manhattan at least, that offer the figurine service, and at a pretty reasonable price. (The Bobble Shop was giving out free demos at the convention. We would recommend them too.)

Some places offer to turn you into a cartoon:

An even more mind blowing service exists, though places that offer it appear a bit fewer and farther between: printing out full-scale models of yourself.

The most renowned firm that does this is Berlin-based Twinkind. They suggest customers use them to 3D print wedding photos or family portraits. 

A business outside Lawrence, Ks. called Lifeform Studio also provides this service:

SEE ALSO: The Most Interesting, Non-Obvious Things You Can Make At Home On A 3D Printer

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Have you ever dreamed of being a superhero? What it would be like to swoop in and save the day? Well for a limited time, you can now create a 3D printed action figure that looks just like you.

Hasbro, Marvel, Walmart, and 3DPlusMe all teamed up to launch the "Super Awesome Me" experience, which scans your face to turn you into a superhero.

"There’s been this pent up demand for putting yourself into the fantasy," Hasbro's senior marketing director Kenny Davis told Business Insider. "They’re playing with these action figures, and they’re imagining themselves as those action figures, so it was just a very obvious thing to be able to literally give them the ability to make themselves into Ironman or into Captain America."

From Sept. 19-28, 10 Walmarts and two Sam's Clubs in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston will feature the "Super Awesome Me" experience in their stores. You'll be able to scan your face in 30 seconds, select a superhero (Iron Man or Captain America), and see the superhero version of yourself come to life.

If you choose to order the 12" action figure for $45, within four weeks Sam's Club will ship it to you and Walmart will let you pick it up from the store.

While the price point is definitely higher than your average action figure, Davis doesn't think it will necessarily be a huge obstacle for parents, since they will not only be getting a toy for their child but also a 3D capture of their child at age 7 or 8, which could take family photo albums to the next level.

And even just getting the price point down to $45 was a feat in itself, made possible only because of 3D printing. To create a personalized action figure using traditional manufacturing could cost tens of thousands of dollars and take three months in order to create the unique mold. 3D printing brings that cost and timeframe down significantly.

"It really wasn't possible before, it was way too expensive, the technology wasn’t there to make it so you could actually have it delivered at a price point that a mass consumer could buy it," CEO of 3DPlusMe Cydni Tetro told Business Insider.

This is what the whole machine looks like.

And here's me getting scanned.

After my image was captured I got to pick between Iron Man and Captain America.

I went with Iron Man.

SEE ALSO: All The Ways Your Kids Can Now Customize Their Toys

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Off-world manufacturing is about to begin.

On Saturday, the first 3D printer designed to work in zero gravity will be launched into space, aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, for use on the International Space Station. 

Designed and created by California-based startup Made In Space, Inc., the Zero-G 3D Printer has been in development since 2010. In July through September of 2011, the printer was subjected to three zero-gravity test flights in the infamous vomit comet to prove that it could operate in a microgravity environment like that of the space station.

In its new home aboard the International Space Station, this first iteration of the printer will enable scientists to study the long-term effects of zero gravity on the additive manufacturing process, as well as to print tools and parts.

Unlike some of the fancier Earth-bound printers, the Zero-G 3D Printer will use good old-fashioned ABS plastic, the same material used by most standard consumer models. 

Here's a video of the Zero-G 3D Printer in action, produced by High Impact Creative:

SEE ALSO: Humans Just Got Our First Close-Up Look At A Comet And It's Mind-Blowing

READ MORE: Boeing And SpaceX Win Huge NASA Contract

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Amid concerns about 3D printed guns, one man has made a prototype of a weapon everyone can agree on: a 3D printed machine gun that shoots paper airplanes. 

YouTube user Papierfliegerei fabricated most of the parts for the whimsical weapon using the German 3D printing website fabberhouse.de, and acquired the rest from the Internet and his local hardware store.

The gun feeds paper into it in a flat sheet and folds the paper airplanes itself. Here it is in action:

And here's a close-up on its inner workings. From the video below it seems to take just a few seconds to fold up and shoot an airplane:

And here's the entire video for your viewing pleasure. It's short and well worth your time, because paper airplane machine gun:

SEE ALSO: This 3D Printer Is Specifically Made To Work In Zero-Gravity In Space

WATCH: This Drivable Car Was Just 3D Printed In 44 Hours

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We’ve been hearing some crazy stories of 3D printers changing lives lately, but this story might just top it all.

Dr. Emile Bacha of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital went on CNBC’s Squawk Box Wednesday to explain a recent procedure where he used a 3D printed heart to save a two-week old baby.

The baby was suffering from a congenital heart defect, which creates “lots of holes” inside the heart. In the past, this type of surgery would require stopping the heart, opening the heart to look inside, and then deciding what to do in the moment. That method would only give a limited amount of time for surgeons to decide what to do.

But with 3D printing technology, Dr. Bacha was able to create a model of the deformed heart in advance so his team could plan ahead of the actual surgery. The model allowed his team to examine the heart and even cut it to know exactly what to do during the actual open-heart surgery.

“It made a huge difference because the baby went from needing 3 or 4 surgeries to needing just one surgery,” Dr. Bacha said. “He went from having limited lifespan to a normal life expectancy.”

Dr. Bacha said he used the baby’s MRI data and 3D printing technology from a company called Materialise to create the heart model.

It cost him about a few thousand dollars, but he said he expects the price to come down soon.

“For people like us in congenital heart surgery, who deal with complex 3D structures, it’s a huge advancement because now we don’t have any more surprises,” Dr. Bacha told CNBC. “We go to the operating room, confident that we know exactly what the anatomy is like, so our outcomes are obviously going to be better for the benefit of the patients.”

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In the future, it may be possible for military jet pilots to manufacture and deploy small 3D-printed drones to conduct surveillance or help perform search-and-rescue missions.

That capability to produce unmanned aerial systems on demand could be onboard aircraft in 2040 or even earlier, BAE Systems scientists and engineers said in a series of promotional videos released this summer.   

Additive manufacturing, the technical term for 3D printing, is the process of creating an object by layering substances, gradually forming the part. Traditional manufacturing processes, on the other hand, take a piece of raw material and then cut or grind it down to form the needed component. 

Although the technology has been around since the 1980s, it has predominantly been employed for modeling and prototyping. As printer resolution and material strength improves, the technology is leaping forward at a rapid pace, experts told National Defense.

BAE scientists envision a future when a pilot can request UAS support mid-mission. Then, engineers sitting in a remote location could send computer-aided design data — basically a blueprint for a 3D-printed component — to an onboard printer which would print a drone with the size, range and payload capability to support whatever operations are ongoing.

“This creates the ultimate adaptable taskforce, with a lead aircraft able to enter any unknown scenario and quickly manufacture an effective toolset for any task,” a BAE news release stated.

A machine that can construct a drone from scratch in a matter of minutes sounds more like a gag from “The Jetsons” than a credible future technology, but industry is already hard at work figuring out just how to make that happen. 

A team of researchers from the University of Virginia in August debuted the Razor — a small, 1.8-pound UAS with an airframe constructed of nine 3D-printed parts that join together to form a flying wing. 

“It comes out of the printer, you snap it off the tray, and you click it into place. It’s that easy. There’s no post-processing at all,” said David Sheffler, the project’s lead. Sheffler is a lecturer at the university and a former Pratt & Whitney engineer.

The airframe is manufactured in about 31 hours using a technique called fused deposition modeling, in which a material is melted and dispensed layer-by-layer to form a structure, he said. The Razor’s electronics — such as the motor, servos, autopilot and batteries — are all off-the-shelf components, and its computational powerhouse is an Android smartphone.

Solid Concepts Inc., a Valencia, California–based additive manufacturing provider, already uses the technology to produce fixed-wing UAS airframes, said Frederick Claus, its business development manager. The company can create the fuselage, wings, nose cone and tail for multiple aircraft overnight.

Both Sheffler and Claus believe that it will become possible to print an entire drone, including its electronic components, batteries and motor, in a couple of decades.

“Making electronic circuitry 3D printed, that’s almost a no-brainer,” Sheffler said. “Making motors with windings and that type of geometry, I think there’s some work to do with that, getting wiring to the point where you can print that out, but I absolutely think that’s feasible in the next 20 years or so.”

Claus believes the military could have a limited capability to print UAS as early as 12 years from now. Those aircraft would not be durable, high-performance systems, but they would get the job done, he said. 

“If a special forces guy needs to print a UAV, and all he has to do is fly it over the hill and find the bad guys … they might just fly it, and then when they’re done with it, they push a button and blow it up,” he said.

But if such a technological leap is to occur, additive manufacturing companies and the government must get to work developing industry standards for 3D printers and materials, Claus said. Printers, materials and processes must all be qualified.

For instance, few companies have developed “design allowables” that measure the strength of a material based on engineering and performance data, he said. Such information is necessary to give manufacturers and customers confidence in the structural integrity of a component.

“Once you have that kind of information, which is really powerful, you can now take it to the Navy, you can take it to the [Federal Aviation Administration], you can take it to anyone that’s interested and convince them that it’s real, it’s legitimate and that they should use it,” Claus said.

Additional short-term challenges include figuring out how to speed up the printing process and developing new, stronger materials, Sheffler said. The FDM process used to make the Razor, for example, took a laborious 30 seconds per layer.

Other machines that use different printing techniques can layer materials in seconds and at greater resolution, but those systems are limited to specific materials, he said. Because an airframe must be constructed out of a strong, lightweight material, that limits the options available.  

These kinds of barriers can be eliminated in about a decade, Claus said. “Ten years out, those things aren’t going to be issues anymore. These things we’re talking about in concept are going to be real.”

But as the technology proliferates, there will be other challenges, Sheffler said. 
Three-D printed drones are most often thought about in an offensive context, of soldiers deployed in a warzone printing a drone that can fly beyond the line of sight and conduct surveillance on enemy forces. 

However, Sheffler pointed out that it’s just as important from a defensive standpoint to develop additive manufactured drones. With 3D printers available commercially and becoming less expensive every year, it might not be long before U.S. adversaries design and manufacture their own systems.

“Anything I’m doing, the bad guys can do. They’re probably thinking about it and they’re developing that capability,” Sheffler said. “I think what we’re doing is trying to understand what those capabilities are so that we can be ready for them.

“What do you do to combat that? How is this going to be a threat, and then what do you do to counter that threat?” he asked. “I think that’s really probably the more important side of what we’re doing here — understanding what you have to do to protect yourself, because it’s coming.” 

SEE ALSO: The Pentagon is rethinking investments in future technology

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Shares of 3D printer maker 3D Systems were down 11% in pre-market trading on Wednesday after the company slashed its revenue guidance on Tuesday night.

In the third quarter, 3D expects revenue to come in between $164-$169 million, below Wall Street expectations for about $186 million.

3D also said it expects adjusted EPS in the third quarter to be $0.16-$0.19, below expectations for $0.21.

In a statement, 3D Systems said, "Strengthening sales of the company’s design, manufacturing and healthcare products and services were not enough to overcome the revenue shortfall from the continued manufacturing capacity constraints for its direct metals printers and delayed availability of its newest consumer products."

3D CEO Avi Reichental added that, "We are disappointed that we failed to fully capitalize on the robust demand for our direct metal and consumer products during the quarter. While we worked very hard to deliver these products sooner, achieving manufacturing scale, quality and user experience targets took significantly longer than we had anticipated."

3D also cut its full-year revenue and profit outlook, saying that it expects revenue to total $650-$690 million, below Wall Street expectations for about $708 million.

Following 3D's revenue cut, other 3D printing companies, including Stratasys, Voxeljet, and ExOne were lower in pre-market trading.

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Too many city rooftops are barren, grey, and boring. Computer scientist Yuichiro Takeuchi, who works with the Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc. is out to change that.

Takeuchi has found a way to print gardens filled with herbs and flowers. These gardens can then be planted on rooftops, or pretty much anywhere.

He uses a 3D printer and software that he designed to print yarn encasements that hold plant seeds that grow in to full-fledged plants in just a few weeks. His 3D printing technology can print gardens that conform to any shape you choose be it, triangular, rectangular, or even panda-shaped:

The way Takeuchi's method works is to first design your shape on a computer. Then you feed that design into the 3D printer, which prints yarn in the shape of your choosing, shown below.

Once the 3D printer is finished, an attachment to the printer dispenses tiny seeds into the yarn, like so:

Takeuchi's approach hinges on a method called hydroponics where you grow plants with mineral nutrient material in place of soil. This is how some of those amazing vertical gardens are grown, like this one in France designed by French botanist Patrick Blanc:

Creations like the one above can run commissioners $1000 per square meter. Although it might be less expensive to build one yourself, it takes a lot of time and care. High prices and long hours of manual labor are the two factors that are hindering large-scale adoption and preventing greener cities, Takeuchi told Business Insider in an email interview. But 3D printing could be the key.

"The printing solution takes away much of those hurdles, and also provides a high degree of flexibility (one can print out a garden that fits snugly into any designated space) which hopefully will make hydroponic gardening more attractive for citizen living in dense cities with limited space," said Takeuchi.

Takeuchi presented his ideas for a greener future last month at the Sony CSL symposium, at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Right now, Takeuchi can grow relatively small plants, like watercress and herbs such as arugula and basil. Below is an image of one of the plants he grew in about one month:

In the future, Takeuchi wants to print yarn encasements large enough to grow fruits, vegetables, and trees. His current 3D printer is too slow for that large a scale, but he's spending the next year on building a bigger, faster printer.

Ultimately, Takeuchi envisions his city of residence, Tokyo, lush with blooming rooftops. Plants have proven to increase productivity in the office and they're ability to suck up carbon dioxide and output oxygen is one way cities could help mitigate their carbon footprint.

Takeuchi is interested in transforming Tokyo rooftops for another special reason, however:

"Here in Japan we love fireflies (they have a special cultural significance), but as they can only thrive in pristine environments we don't see them in dense, built-up Tokyo," he said. "I'm hoping that by installing a number of printed gardens on rooftops and walls throughout Tokyo, I can someday bring back fireflies to my neighborhood."

Below is a a before and after image of what Takeuchi hopes to achieve, which he presented at the Sony CSL symposium:

READ MORE:  This Concept Design For A Futuristic Floating Ocean City Is Amazing

READ ALSO: 3 Girls Won The Google Science Fair With A Bacteria-Based Plan To Solve The Food Crisis

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You've probably heard of "virtual reality." That's what you get when you put on an Oculus Rift headset and feel like you've entered a completely new world.

Maybe you've heard of "augmented reality." That's what you get when you put on Google Glass and it projects Google-y facts or images on the world. Or you run an app like Star Chart on your smartphone, hold it up to the sky and it superimposes the constellations on your view of the sky.

Surely you've heard of real reality, the stuff that happens when you aren't sleeping.

But a few days ago, with the introduction of HP's jaw-dropping new "Sprout" PC, something called "blended reality" has arrived.

The sprout PC replaces a keyboard and mouse with touchscreen, scanner and other features that let you take actual objects and easily "put" them into your PC.

For instance, you can set an object on a computer pad, and it scans a 3D image of it into your machines.

But the real magic happens when you take the Sprout PC (available next week, November 10) and combine it with a 3D printer, a device that instantly manufacturers things, as easily as printing a document. 

HP also announced a new 3D printer (expected 2016), that could be a breakthrough in 3D printing, able to use a wider variety of materials at a lower cost than current printers. If HP's plans for it pan out, it could put 3D printing into the hands of every business and home. (First up, HP has a plan to put 3D printers into places where people can share them, along the lines of a FedEx Kinko's, as Recode's Arik Hesseldahl describes the plan.)

Put the Sprout and 3D printer together and you'll be able make actual objects move in and out of your computer with a swish of your hands.

For instance, you scan an object, make changes to it, hit print, and in a few minutes, you get the real life thingy-me-bob you just dreamed up.

But that could be just the first step for "blended reality" just like a Fitbit or Pebble smartwatch is a first step in the wearable computer market.

"Blended reality" is a term used five years ago by futurist think tank Institute For The Future.

The IFTF envisioned it as a sort of tech-enabled sixth sense, which will be worn or maybe even implanted into our bodies and interface with our computers.

"We are literally beginning to see and feel the world through a new set of eyes and ears—things that were previously invisible become visible, and we see the familiar in a new way," as the IFTF describes it.

For instance, with blended reality glasses, you can add a "good mood" filter to keep you happy.

Here's how the IFTF imagined blended reality back in 2009.

And if you really want to understand where all of this might be going, read Kim Stanley Robinson's 2012 sci-fi bestseller "2312." It describes a mind-blowing world 300 years in the future based on technologies being developed today. You won't be able to forget it.

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As 2014 draws to a close, it's time to examine the tech industry's trajectory and predict which trends will explode in the upcoming year.

Experts from market research firm Gartner, the IEEE Computer Society, MIT, and other sources have named the tech trends they thought were super hot for businesses in 2014 or are going to become hot in 2015.

We've sifted through that information, and have thrown in a few of our own picks to come up with this list of the nine technologies companies will go nuts for in 2015.

No. 9: 3D printing

Breakthroughs in 3D printing are coming in 2015, which will make this form of manufacturing attractive to nearly any business.

One such technology is something known  "micro-scale 3D printing," according to MIT.

This is where "inks" of different materials can be loaded into 3D printers, allowing them to print a huge range of objects.

No. 8: Wearables at work

In 2015, wearable computers will start to trickle into the workplace.

Smartwatches will keep employees plugged in without constantly looking at their phones.

Health wrist devices will encourage employees to participate in group wellness programs.

Companies will also start experimenting with smart glasses with custom apps such as repair guides, video conferencing, training videos, and the like.

HR software company Kronos and The Workforce Institute recently polled 9,000 people worldwide and found that 73% said they think wearables would be helpful at work.

No. 7: Ultra-private devices

Computer security is entering a new phase. Passwords won't exactly die in 2015, but our devices will become more secure and private. More devices, including and beyond smartphones, will get fingerprint sensors.

(A company called Nok Nok, for instance, offers technology that turns touchscreens and touch pads into a finger print sensor.)

While hackers aren't going away, your work software will be wrapped in layers of security. So when a hacker breaks into one app, other apps will know it and guard themselves. The hacker will get limited info and won't get the data stored in other apps.

"Every app needs to be self-aware and self-protecting,"Gartner says.

New York (AFP) - Many manufacturers are at an early stage of discovering the benefits of 3D printing, but one of the clearest strengths is customization.

At Normal, consumers can use a mobile app to photograph their ear, transmit the shots to the New York startup's 3D printing facility and then receive customized earphones within 48 hours.

The process marries today's click-and-go speed with a made-to-order ethos that recalls the days of visiting the tailor or the cobbler.

The company's motto: "Normal: one size fits none."

After three decades in relative obscurity, 3D printing, which employs lasers to "print" objects from metals or plastics according to a digital design, has suddenly become one of the hottest areas of technology.

Computer giant Hewlett-Packard is plunging into the business, recently announcing it would put its own ultra-fast 3D printer on the market by 2016, "empowering people to create, interact and inspire like never before".

General Electric chief executive Jeff Immelt has said 3D printing can help make manufacturing "sexy again", and President Barack Obama has praised it for having "the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything".

"It's a little bit confusing and the excitement is very big," said David Reis, chief executive at Israeli-US 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys.

"There's a lot of venture capital money coming into the market."

But while enthusiasm for the technology is widespread, some companies see it as more of a long-term prospect than a current game changer.

Boeing does not expect to make major metal parts with 3D printing for at least 20 years, though company officials say that time frame could be accelerated.

3D printing "is definitely on the radar screen," said Dave Dietrich, technical leader for additive metals at the aerospace giant.

"The systems need to become larger, more repeatable, that sort of thing," he said. "We want to make sure we have an appropriate amount of testing and confidence in that process".

Weighing the hype

3D printing has its roots in the 1980s when inventor Chuck Hull began experimenting with liquid plastics that would harden when they were exposed to ultraviolet light.

Hull ultimately discovered that thousands of these plastic sheets could be layered, or "printed," on top of each other and shaped into a three-dimensional object.

He co-founded 3D Systems, with the company developing software to do 3D printing from computer images and building 3D printers.

Even so, Hull in May told the Quartz website that some of the talk about 3D printing "is definitely hype and won't happen".

The recent surge in interest follows the embrace of 3D printing technology by the "maker" community -- the new technology do-it-yourself creative movement -- said Pete Basiliere, research vice president at Gartner.

People can now buy their own 3D printers for less than $1,000, and enterprise-sized machines begin at an inexpensive $2,500.

Market researcher Gartner forecasts that worldwide spending on 3D printing will rise from $1.6 billion in 2015 to around $13.4 billion in 2018.

Basiliere is especially bullish on applications for medical devices like hearing aids and prosthetics, where the technology "has life-altering potential".

The impetus for Normal came from founder Nikki Kaufman's frustration about poorly fitting earphones and learning that a custom-made set through conventional manufacturing could cost $2,000 and take weeks to be made.

Kaufman raised $5 million from investors and opened her combined factory/store in New York City in August. The space has 10 3D printers but room for as many as 30.

GE is among the large manufacturers active in 3D printing. It has been using the technology to make fuel nozzles for its LEAP jet engines, which will go into service in 2015.

GE uses a 200-watt laser to melt together ultra-thin layers made from metal powders to make the fuel nozzle. 3D printing allows it to add cooling pathways to prevent the build-up of carbon deposits that mar conventionally made nozzles, making the 3D pieces up to five times more durable.

3D printing works especially well for "highly sophisticated parts that are very difficult to make in a conventional way," said GE Aviation spokesman Rick Kennedy.

GE is testing 3D printing for other engine parts, with an eye toward reducing material and energy costs. But Kennedy said adding more components to the engine will be "very gradual" after extensive testing.

"You tread very carefully because you're dealing with parts that absolutely have to work," he said.

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If were wondering what useful object you could actually print with that much-hyped 3D printer you bought, or just fancy making your own laptop computer but are not sure where to start, the Pi-Top is an exciting proposition.

Everything you need to build your 3D-printable laptop, bar the printer itself, comes in a pack currently on sale for $286.

The Pi-Top pack includes a customizable template for the 3D printer, so you can print your laptop in any colour or even have your name embossed on the shell. It also contains a screen and a “Raspberry Pi” – a desktop tower the size of a credit card – that need to be slotted into the shell to form the final laptop.

The Pi-Top has all the functions of a normal laptop, but its inventors hope it will be used to teach children to become more computer literate by learning how to dismantle and reassemble it.

The laptop, which officially launches in May, is available to buy on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo, which enables thousands of people to pledge seed capital to a new idea rather than relying on a loan.

Here's what the Pi-Top package on Indiegogo comes with: 

1)  Injection molded case

2)  3D printer STL files compatible for most print bed sizes (5" x 5" bed size and up)

3)  PCBs - Power Management, HDMI to LVDS Bridge and Keyboard & Trackpad Controller.

4)  Electronics breadboard

5)  Battery

6)  Keyboard

7)  Trackpad

8)  13.3”HD LCD Screen

9)  Wifi adapter

9)  Acrylic slice

10)  Wiring

11)  DC wall plug

12)  Build instructions

13)  Online & integrated lesson plans

The idea with Pi-Top is to teach users how to build their own devices with Raspberry Pi, not just laptops but home automation devices, robots, and other hardware. To do that, the Pi-Top has its own gamified learning environment to teach users step-by-step how to build. 

Here's one of Pi-Top's founders talking about the device:

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The White House teamed up with the Smithsonian to make an exact 3D replica of President Barack Obama.

A video released by the White House on Tuesday showed Smithsonian staffers using scanners, cameras, and computer programs to obtain measurements that were used to make a 3D-printed bust of President Barack Obama. 

According to Gunter Waibel, the director of the Smithsonian Digitization Program Office, the project was "inspired" by "life masks" of President Abraham Lincoln's face that were made from plaster casts.

In order to make the 3D presidential portrait, Obama sat in front of a "mobile light stage" with 50 customized LED lights that replicated multiple different lighting conditions. While Obama sat there, he was photographed by multiple cameras. Smithsonian staffers also used handheld 3D scanners.

The portrait session yielded exact measurements of Obama that were used to make a presidential bust.

"This isn't an artistic likeness of the president this is actually millions upon millions of measurements that create a 3D likeness of the president," Adam Metallo, the Smithsonian's 3D Digitization Program Officer explained.

The Smithsonian can use 3D printers to make multiple copies of the presidential portrait.

And, of course, Obama got the chance to see one of the 3D printed busts face-to-identical-face.

Check out the full White House video below. 

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Christmas came early for Derby the dog.

He was born with deformed front legs:

But 3D Systems’ director of CJP product management Tara Anderson found him through adoption agency and rescue group Peace and Paws.

"I had to try and help this dog," she said.

Derby had a cart, which wasn’t great:

“It limits his ability in being able to play with other dogs and it’s not the full motion of running,” Anderson said.

So Anderson and her team hit upon a new design for dog legs:

The circular loop design was proposed as a way to stop Derby’s new legs digging into the dirt.

They printed it off and presented it to Derby and his adopted family:

Look how happy he is now:

Here’s why – Derby now runs with his adopted dad Dom “at least two to three miles” a day:

And now the basic design is on file, it only requires a quick modification and print to give the same freedom to other dogs with similar disabilities.

“This is what 3D printing is all about,” Anderson says.

“To be able to help anybody – dog, person, whoever – to have a better life is just, there’s no better thing to be involved in.”

Here’s the full video:

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