With in-home 3D printing continually picking up steam, MakerBot looked to advance the craft by announcing a 3D scanner add-on for its line of printers. Instead of designing a printable object using software, the scanner allows you to place an existing object atop a spinning platform, where it’s then optically scanned from all sides and converted into “a high-quality, water-tight 3D model, in as little as three minutes,” says MakerBot. You’d then be able to use a 3D printer to print the object out later.
The system is being pitched as something you can use to “archive your possessions or save your kid’s play-dough sculptures.” It’s still in the testing phase – price and availability haven’t been set.
MakerBot Digitizer: Scan To Print In No Time [MakerBot]