Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
we could co-fabricate circuits of all shapes and sizes. We could print mechani-
cal devices whose circuits are already built-in, whose complexity rivals that
of the biological world.
Multi-material 3D printing is in its early stages. This toy is actually a
sophisticated engineering project made of several different raw materials
that were blended together during the printing process.
Another way to gain control over the material composition of objects is to
voxelize them. A voxel is the physical equivalent of a pixel. Voxels could be
tiny, discrete pieces of a solid material. Or voxels could be tiny containers that
hold whatever you put into them.
We're just learning to 3D print objects made of voxels. Objects made of
voxels offer an alternative to the analog materials that comprise most physi-
cal things. If you can make something from voxels, you're one step closer to
making it behave more like a programmable object, to controlling its behavior.
Control over material composition of physical objects opens the door to the
next stage, control over the behavior of physical objects.
Control over behavior
Consider a wooden kitchen table. If you were to use an optical scanner and scan
its outer surfaces, you could turn the scan data into a design ile. Once the table's
physical dimensions successfully made the leap into digital format, it would be easy
to temporarily gain full control over the table's design by using design software.
