What does a transporter actually do on Star Trek? It scans in an object and then recreates it at a new location. How far from that are we from that technology today? At the level of quantum physics and perfect replicas structurally, from the same materials, and able to preserve the electrical impulses of human consciousness we are pretty far away and really only able to transport information. However, Bre Pettis of MakerBot industries fame was able to scan in a bust of Alexander the Great at the Brooklyn Museum, post the model on Thingiverse, then I was able to download that object and print it out on my Afinia 3D Printer. Maybe it is more like a fax than a transporter but the results are much more impressive than a spam fax for a trip to Cancun. So, what is it going to take to get the world to the 3D printer/scanner/fax combination that is so ubiquitous in home and professional offices? Enter the 3D scanner and a Indiegogo project called the Photon.
The Photon, from Matterform, is funding via Indiegogo and promises to be an amazing 3D scanner for your desktop and deserves a place right next to your 3D printer. Depending on how you configure your scan and what you are scanning, you can have a 3D model in as little as 3 minutes. Right now the resolution is about 0.43 mm at 0.5 degree scans with an accuracy of +/- 0.2 mm but they are working to improve even beyond those numbers. The scanner can scan an object up to 7.5 inches across by about 9 inches tall.
The Indiegogo project ends in 5 days now and if you want to get in on this I would jump on the opportunity. The project is already fully funded and well beyond with some big name backers. To get in for a single scanner is C$599 and well worth the investment in my opinion. Take a look at their Indiegogo site, watch the video, and be amazed.
This was a project I almost backed, but it had a jump of $100… then $200… for the same machine. They were doing limited blocks of 100 (I believe) and when one sold out, they’d raise the price $100 (the original Indiegogo I was seeing was also in American dollars I believe, and now changed to Canadian AND the earlier batches are no longer appearing in the list of backer options). It’s a great looking device, but lately I’ve been refusing to back projects that do this… don’t punish folks who find your project late in the game (especially when a lot of those early adopters are friends and friends-of-friends who got the word early). If you really feel you have to award early adopters, fine — $10 or $25 would be great… but $100 and then $200 is crazy. I could see if the device was hand-painted and signed by the team and had a Papa Smurf glue-gunned to the top, but late backers getting the same item for $100-200 more AND a month or two later? No thanks. I’ll just have to be more diligent about finding the next 3D scanner that pops up and hope it doesn’t have low limited batches.