Build your own IPOD using a "Build Anything" machine
 

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/...fabber.ws.html

Damn! The domain "fabber.com" is already taken.

Synopsis: You can build at home a machine that will build other devices. They are called 3D Printers. It is relatively cheap and you can get plans for devices that the machine will build off the Internet.

Example: I'd like a new IPod-like device for my nephew. I download the plans off the Net. Feed it into my 3D Printer. Feed it parts it needs. Parts are created and assembled. Done.

Anyway, interesting parallels between this and early homebuilt 'proto-PCs' like the Altair.

Enjoy.

From the article:

Commercial machines can't be modified, which, Lipson says, impedes the progress of the technology, but the Fab@Home is "open source." Anyone can download the plans at http://www.fabathome.org, which is getting about 20,000 hits a day.

cool, I'll build a realdoll

that's pretty cool.

If the plans are available online you're good to go :winkwink: :thumbsup

Just got through watching this one, pretty damn cool.

http://www.fabathome.org/wiki/upload...dDemoMovie.wmv

What's even cooler is this kind of technology is what will be used to one day build organs! I wonder if Ill be able to build my own kidneys one day ;p

The way things are going with gene silencing and stem cells, the day of organ generation is sooner than we think. No organ rejection. Full compatibility. No more waiting for a donor.

cool....

awesome! :thumbsup thanks for sharing! :)

very interesting sheeit

That's what I try to do. Share interesting stuff that is NOT drama, "would you hit it", or similar material.

Their machine is definitely cool, and fairly practical to build, but it's basically just a crude 3d printer

It can basically make plastic parts out of a single material based on a 3d file. Definitely cool though, but we're very far off (decades probably) before something could, in a practical way build other machines/electronic devices from raw materials - this just makes a single part (like a "lego tire") and probably takes many hours just to do that

still, I wish I had one. good article:thumbsup

My girl works at Cornell University. I'm gonna see if she can get more info. Thanks for clueing us in.