Last Updated on December 2, 2019 by Christopher G Mendla
The fiction of Star Trek has finally met up with reality. Remember the food replicator? All you had to do was tell the ship’s computer what you wanted and the meal would appear in a few moments.
Three-D printing has been with us for a while. Most of the uses have been small scale production, modelling , prototyping and mold making. Now there is a printer thanks to some very bright folks at MIT that will hold a variety of ingredients. It has the capability for very localized heating and cooling which allows for some very precise preparation.
Currently this is in a infancy stage. My guess is that we will probably see units for the home in a couple of years. The market share will probably follow a trend similar to the market penetration of VCRs. The early models were large, expensive and a status symbol. A couple of decades later and they are almost a throw away commodity.