Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Voxels do not yet exist beyond the lab, and printers that can handle voxels
do not yet work on a practical scale. But the idea that everyday objects will
be made of billions of tiny voxels of a relatively small repertoire is mind bog-
gling. Just as amino acids are the low-level common denominator that enables
nature to recycle materials perfectly, if all products would be made of a few
dozen basic voxel types, products could be “printed,” then decomposed, and
reprinted into other products.
To make this vision happen, we need to make tiny voxels, and ind a way to
rapidly assemble those voxels. A quick calculation shows that to make a small,
shoebox size object from sand-grain sized voxels, you need approximately
one billion voxels. Assembling one billion voxels can take a lot of time; even
if a robot could perfectly assemble voxels at a rate of one per second, it would
take almost 30 years. The solution is to assemble lots of voxels in parallel, a
complete layer of voxels at a time, simultaneously.
The irst 10,000-voxel object assembled by a rapid
assembler. Still coarse, like early computer graphics.
Maybe one day we will have a GigaVoxel printer?
