Shapeways 3D Printing

[Matt]

Shapeways is a printer that creates resin models based on 3D designs.
It's great for the modeler or fabricator.

Now for the photographer, they now offer this spooky-looking 3D model of a photograph. It looks like a relief map of sorts until you hold it up to the light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-psrEZ_V3g

Resin models run about $30 per cubic cm, so this will run you $40-50

[HaloGirl]

I seem to recall finding a website that would do something like that for placement over a nightlight, but I've forgotten where that was.

I have a friend whose job is to sculpts toys (like what you get in Happy Meals), and they use a 3-D printer. His soft/hardware is pretty amazing too. He uses a physical pen/stylus instead of a mouse, and it's suspended in the air (above where your mousepad would be), and the software lets you "feel" the sculpting material as you "draw." He let us try it when we were visiting one time, a very weird but cool experience.

[Matt]

That stylus reminds me of the [amazon=B000UTH19Y]Falcon[/amazon] - a tactile stylus.

[HaloGirl]

That stylus reminds me of the [amazon=B000UTH19Y]Falcon[/amazon] - a tactile stylus.

This didn't look anything like that. You actually held a "pen" in your hand, the drawing point was in open air, the other end was attached to something that allowed it free motion (and connected it to the computer). When you "sculpted" on a blob on the computer screen, you could feel the resistance in the pen.