3D printer in a knick-knack store

Make Magazine has a note about an Umbra concept store in Toronto which now has a 3D printer (some people also call them "fabbers"). The store can use it to fabricate novel items, and the store chain designers visit the store to create and fabricate designs while chatting with customers about the process. The little white widgets to the left of the printer are some of its products.



I'm interested in 3D printers, but I haven't dedicated the time to build my own, as some people have started to do. It's intriguing to imagine what 3D printers might accomplish in combination with automated design techniques such as genetic algorithms (here are some more GA links).

At the present time, 3D printers are the closest things to real nanofactories, and they present limited versions of many of the same challenges that nanofactories will bring, such as copyright issues and the bumpy ride toward a post-scarcity economy.