The world is going to be amazing.

There are a couple of technologies that are brewing around the Valley that give me great hope for the future. It's easy to feel the manufacturing renaissance is dead, dead, dead. I don't agree. 3D printing is going to be one of the most disruptive technologies of our time. It will truly change the world.

It's moving really fast now. Even though I've been watching this sector for about 10 years, and I see new 3D printers every few months,  and they still keep coming up with ways to impress me.

When I walked into that tool show yesterday I expected to see tools. Happily I also saw industrial 3D printers from Stratasys and 3Dsystems. I'm more excited about that stuff anyway. Stratasys is the company that just bought Makerbot. The models were not  for home consumers, rather the company you work for might own one. They were higher end models.

The super interesting thing IMO was  everyone was printing with Gypsum (sandstone). I've seen machines print with all sorts of stuff. Berkeley has a machine that prints with cardboard like material. 3D printing is open source right now - so everyone is trying everything. Different printer designs. Different materials.

The thing about the gypsum though, is it creates a realistic weightiness to objects. It also gives a depth to the material so you can create very realistic figurines. Here from Shapeways.



Stratasys was displaying some fittings and the usual brickabrack.

3Dsystems had a couple of super realistic shoe prototypes on display.





Now that the novelty has worn off, the objects being printed are starting to feel like they could be used in a real world environment. The shoes not so much. Gypsum is not wearable, but it makes great prototypes.



If you look hard enough in the image at the top you can see my reflection.

I continue to love Cubify.

Obviously the 3D printing was one of the main reasons I was looking forward to CES this year. However, finding companies at CES will drive you to the edge of insanity. It's a little like the Great Race where they send people through in Indian bizarre to find the envelope. The booths are numbered and they do have "an app for that", which crashes all the time. And even if you could get it to not crash....the numbering scheme is insane. Just because you walk in the direction of a grouping of booths doesn't mean that number is actually in that area. And I've been to CES like six times now!

Anyway. The important thing about Cubify is they released a larger printer. Which prints in three colors. I thought this was a ceramic up. But it wasn't. It was printed.


I'm thinking they are only one color away from full printer status. If they can figure out how to blend colors.



Here you can see the difference in size for the old model vs. the new. The three color model is about 4 grand. And this is all the shots I have because I was about to miss my plane by the time I found their booth.

New to the 3D printing space.

HT Shapeways. It really is an interesting design. I predict CES will be chalk full of 3D printers this year.

Maker Faire 2012 - part 3.

Shapeways and Cubify continue to be my 3D printing platform of choice. They have the best finished and professional looking product. However, there were a lot more companies this year. And at least one company might move up to the top spot. But I don't have room in this post.

There were so many new players this year, that I'm starting to believe this is going to be a real technology sector.

Shapeways also prints incredibly delicate stuff that moves and is multicolor.





The Cubify van was there. Which I think appeals to your pre-teen market. And girls. It's the best looking 3D printer.

I have one word - Cubify.

If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you will know that 3D printing is a technology I have been watching for a really long time.

I first saw it at RoboNexus in 2005. Then again in the World of Next Tuesday post in 2006. Maker Faire 2011, 3D printing had made great leaps. Then most recently in the dashboard of that Ultima kit car.

So when I saw the Cubify booth at CES, I thought I'd die. I continue to believe 3D printing will be one of the most disruptive technologies of our time. The technology has gone from very simple objects, to being able to print multi color simple toys.

The price is now to a point that it's affordable for average consumers. I believe every household will eventually own a 3D printer.

When I first starting watching it, these printers were 40 grand. The Cubify machine was apparently only 1200.00 bucks. I had to ask the guy a few times because I thought he said 12 grand. The price has been halving every year - so 12 grand didn't seem that out of range. 1200 bucks though is very affordable.

Turning a "Meh" into a "Yeah".

I made it to that jet reception last night by the skin of my teeth. I was fashionably late. The venue was hard to find. I think most of the cars had left. Which was okay, because the sun had started casting all these long shadows.

Immediately this car above caught my eye. I didn't know what is was.



When I asked the owner about it, he told me it was a kit car based on an Altima. Mr S. was taking shots of other things and didn't seem that interested in this car at the time.

When we got home that night Mr S. and I talked about the car. I'd recounted what the owner had told me. Mr S. seemed skeptical and uninterested because it was a kit car. It is a little like getting socks for Christmas. Even I remember feeling disappointed by it's status.



Today however we got to see the car again at the Concours. The owner had the doors and boot popped up. Where Mr S. exclaimed - oooooooh. It's an Ultima. Not an Altima. What's that - I asked? He didn't know.



Luckily later we ran into the owner. He was talking with a few guys. Until he mentioned that he'd printed some of the inside components with a 3D printer. This is where I kind of edged the guys out. I like cars, but I'm not going to do car talk. I will however talk 3D printing. You know I am all about the 3D printing.

You can see these vents don't look perfectly smooth. Because they were printed with a 3D printer. Mr S. and I have had many debates about which sector is going to embrace 3D printing first. We always felt car guys will push the technology first. There are tons of little parts they can just print.



Turns out this is a "component" kit car. Which is a very distinct difference. Your average 'kit' car is just some new body panels you put over an existing car. Like a ferraribird. But a component kit car is just a bag of parts -- You really have to assemble it all yourself. They ship you everything in separate, assembled boxes, (frame, body panels, windshield, seats, ...), You supply the motor, and put it all together.



Ultima Sports Wiki.

The world of next Tuesday.

I am pretty confident I am going to have to start hiding my identity to keep getting into venues. I admit I do have a particularly jaded view of technology. It is so cheap and accessible that things that used to be super wiz-bang are fairly routine.

This is my review of the Sunset Magazine innovation house. Probably the most detailed review you will find. I wasn't horribly impressed. More hype than real function. The other oddity. You have to be bused into this place. Which almost made me cratch going. I am horrible at waiting for things. At any rate.. the occupants of the buses were basically Sunset Seniors. Mostly the elderly who read the magazine, but for which the technology would surely be lost on. Maybe there was a huge "wow factor" for that demographic.

So here we go....

The first thing you see when you walk in is the robo-mower by Kyodo America.



I am particularly interested in this product since I own a Friendly Robotics machine. There has been a ton of salivating that iRobot would make a mower to compliment their other line of products. I have seen the pictures of this machine on the web and assumed it was a huge machine. It isn't. It is actually half the size of the Friendly Robotics model.

As you can see, it also has a fairly obvious safety vulnerability. More concerning is an image on this site which shows you how far off the ground this machine gets when it is doing steep terrain.



Additionally. This is a single blade unit. I have seen so many pictures making it seem like a huge machine (here) that would mow a large expanse. I am telling you. This machine would take a very long time to mow a yard this size.



I would have loved to see it going to see what all these buttons were about. Although I pretty much knew it would be inoperable.



iRobot display.



There were one or two "futuristic" things in the house. Although this next item seemed gratuitous, and odd. A 3D printer.



Even though the technology has progressed since I last saw it here at RoboNexus. I think it will still a long time before people will find these thing practical. The price has come down considerably though.. so perhaps I am wrong. This model was between 20-21 grand. RoboNexus 2005 they were about 45 grand.

These were the products it was making at RoboNexus. Here, here and here. Below are the products it was making at the Innovation House.





This was the data-closet for this house.



For the amount of real technology, I'm guessing half of this closet runs this climate controlled wine cellar with a bar-code system to keep track of your vintages.



As you can see it is a massive structure. We are close to wine country... but still.



Here is a clever display (I think) of a more safe way to do electrical wiring. If any of you know how the system works now... you basically wire-nut all the wires together. Hope the wire-nuts don't slip off when you push everything back into the wire-boxes. This system snaps the connectors together. Much like the connector that is on the back of your disk drive.



In the future, bathrooms will be really small.







Note: I don't mind small bathrooms, but this house is being sold in the range of 5.5 million dollars after Sunset Magazine is done running this tour. For that kind of money I want a bigger bathroom.

But they will have really cool windows made of liquid crystals.





The bathrooms will come with faucets that look really cool, but make every woman on earth crazy. When I first saw this I thought it looked great, but the water would drip on the mirror constantly making it look like crap. Sure enough.. turn the water off and you are left with drips on the mirror.



The office of the future will really not look much different than it does now.



And the media-room doesn't even have a TIVO.



And we still wont be able to figure out any art that is friendly to the earth without it being made from those plastic 6 pack can holders.



I was hugely interested in the solar installation. After the last blackout, we have been seriously looking hard at this technology.





In the future you will not need to use your legs. Maybe in this neighborhood you need a bicycle that runs like a motorcycle. Although I think a Vespa might be more hip.





The real reason to buy this house is the BBQ area. Honestly, it is the most fantastic space on the property.





And these fabulous views.



If you can make out the for-sale sign, this house could be yours. Just know, you can have most of this technology for way way under the 5.5 mil price-tag.