3D Printers Create Edible Objects 72
MrShaggy writes "An engineering lab and a culinary school have teamed up to construct novel edible objects with 3D printers that use pureed foods in place of ink. From the article: '"It lets you do complex geometries with food that you could never do by hand," said Jeffrey Lipton, a researcher and graduate student at the lab. "So far, we've printed everything from chocolate, cheese and hummus to scallops, turkey, and celery," Lipton told CBC Radio's Spark in an interview that aired Sunday.'"
Quick ! quick !!! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
His first question was: Can I copy my junk?
Re:Quick ! quick !!! (Score:5, Funny)
Your response, was, I hope, "sorry, we can't make out details that small yet"
Re: (Score:2)
If you look back, people had a FIT over photocopiers at the time, book publishers mainly. Just imagine what will happen when material printers start becoming practical?
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Or better yet, just send an unmanned probe with the printer to the destination. Then print out all the passengers.
Your idea only works if the destination of the probe is the planet the aliens came from in "To Serve Man", and it only helps them, not us.
Re: (Score:2)
It helps us if they realise they can just print out their food, then they don't have to come here and eat us
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Well, on the next mission, print the females first..
Re: (Score:1)
Printing out people (Score:4, Interesting)
Okay, for this to be a reality, we need to get 3-D printing down to at least the cellular, if not molecular, level. (Would quantum uncertainty effects render this impossible?) But this is a nice idea, cleverer than the idea of a Star Trek style transporter [wikipedia.org]. It would be the 3-D equivalent of faxing a letter. Unlike "beaming", 3-D "faxing" does not imply the destruction and subsequent recreation of the original. A 3-D fax produces copies.
This raises a moral dilemma. If I fax myself, let's say, to Alpha Centauri, who then is the real Me, the spaceman or the one who stayed behind? Do I have the right to kill(switch) my other self (the one who stayed behind)? Would I be guilty of murder? Would it even count as suicide? Or could it simply be a form of hi-tech amputation or surgery, getting rid of an unnecessary body (part)?
Re: (Score:2)
get out of my head!
Re: (Score:2)
There was The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits (new series, dont remember which one tho) episode about this. About a guy whose job was to operate the "transporter". Transporter was actually making copies and mans duty was to push a button destroying the original, but only after getting confirmation that the copy was successfully reassembled at the destination. One day transporter malfunctions, confirmation doesnt come, man doesnt kill a woman transported. While they wait he gets to know her better. Later c
Re: (Score:1)
This idea was central to the plot of Think Like a Dinosaur, by James Patrick Kelly. Great story.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Good for space travel. (Score:4, Insightful)
Does the shape of the food really matter? I think the texture is a far bigger deal.
No matter what shape you put it in ground meat will never make a real steak, no matter what you do with ground carrot you will never have carrot sticks.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, just fry it and everything will be fine.
Re:Good for space travel. (Score:4, Funny)
Does the shape of the food really matter?
I take it you've never had kids.
Mine aren't quite at that age, yet, but I fondly remember bothering my mother to color and cut me pancakes in this-and-that shape of the ASCII characters used in the Rogue tileset, morning after Kindergarten morning.
Re: (Score:2)
Does the shape of the food really matter? I think the texture is a far bigger deal.
Sometimes, yes. I considered building one of these myself; I believe the reprap design is able to print in sugar paste and/or chocolate, which could be useful for cake decoration. Note that people pay serious money for customised wedding cakes.
Re: (Score:2)
Sometimes, yes. I considered building one of these myself; I believe the reprap design is able to print in sugar paste and/or chocolate, which could be useful for cake decoration. Note that people pay serious money for customised wedding cakes.
Agreed, we had this discussion at our LUG demo of a rep-rap. We were all too lazy to attack the market, but kudos to he who first prints realistic his/her cake toppers.
Nerds building food.. (Score:3)
What's Wrong with Old Media (Score:2)
Just what we've been waiting for (Score:2)
Damn (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Just patent troll them instead. It's like inventing, but uses more lawyer and less moral in the money recipe.
[/jokes]
Re: (Score:3)
Now I am really going to blow you bong water drinking mind, debone a whole chicken as you would for a turducken then bread and fry it whole. A giant chicken nugget that is a chicken!
Re: (Score:2)
Been there, done that.
The best way I've found to make Turduckhen is to fry each bird seperatly before stuffing them into the next raw bird. Obviously you need to reach sterilization temp after the last stuffing.
I don't do Turduckhen anymore though. Duckhen is much much better and simpler. The turkey is just a useless addition to a perfect recipe.
Re: (Score:2)
Chicken nuggets that look like Chickens.
But why 3-D print Chicken Nuggets when the current process of pressing them in molds works perfectly well?
I'll have the BBQ Fractal Cow, please (Score:2)
With lots of BBQ sauce: http://www.mndl.hu/works/fractalcow [www.mndl.hu]
Now how do I find the T-bones on that thing?
This isn't the first... (Score:2)
There was one done quite a bit ago that used sugar as the print material. Wasn't very high resolution, but it worked, and could be eaten. Also, I've heard of Rep-raps using chocolate (and other substances) in the past.
This also doesn't appear very high resolution, so I'm failing to see what about this is first or even particularly novel about it. The only first I see is the specific things they used.
Ah, indeed, I have found a link: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/candyfab [evilmadscientist.com]
Re: (Score:2)
The only first I see is the specific things they used
Exactly -- they're making spaceships out of cheese, what's not awesome about that?
(And even if not particularly newsy, it is at least a lot more nerdy than most other front page stories :P)
Re: (Score:2)
Not even close to first. I used an SLA-190 to make complicated molds for chocolates in 1994. And probably not the first. I would be shocked if someone didn't use an SLS system to directly make complex shapes out of food around the same time or before.
My biggest complaint with today's homebrew rapid prototyping is the poor resolution. Pitiful even by standards 20 years ago.
Refills (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Hell, it could be human blood and it would still be cheaper than HP Black ink #49...
I've actually heard that #49 is manufactured using truffle oil.
Re: (Score:1)
SPAM(tm), anyone? (Score:3)
This will certainly redefine 'Spam', that's for sure.
I see .... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
http://www.icingimages.com/info.php [icingimages.com]
http://www.photofrost.com/ [photofrost.com]
Re: (Score:1)
GP obviously meant 3D graphics.
The future: (Score:2)
A kitchen conversation in a few years:
"Mom! I'm hungry!"
"You know how to print a double cheeseburger yourself, young man."
Re: (Score:2)
But it's not the same as when she does it...
"Boy oh boy Mom, you sure know how to hydrate a pizza" [wikia.com].
ObSunny (Score:2)
"Go download me a hoagie from the Internet!"
Re: (Score:2)
Oh great. Now we're going to have Subway and McDonald's complaining about Internet pirates offering subs and cheeseburgers for free download which costs them sales. Then KFC will declare that Open Source Fried chicken is a copyright violation of their Original Recipe and they have proof (which will only be seen at trial and which will eventually be revealed to be similar ingredients like "chicken" and "breadcrumbs").
Re: (Score:2)
Chicken grease salt!
Tea. (Score:2)
Tea. Earl grey. Hot.
drink the music (Score:1)
I wonder what music would produce a hot cup of tea.
Re: (Score:2)
Tea. Earl grey. Hot.
(slurp...)
Dammit, I wanted no sugar!
OK, that is a great headline (Score:1)
next step ... (Score:1)
The Future (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
The problem is, you can only print food that fits in CUPS.
(snare drum)
Not another gadget (Score:2)
Giving more credibility (Score:1)
to the "dog ate my homework" line.
printed a heart (Score:2)
I swear I saw a story the other night that they printed out a heart. I was only half paying attention and had a few drinks so I just kind of shook it off like I must have missed something. Turns out they didn't just print them out but the thing beats.... eeerry
OB " ITS ALIVE!!!!!!! MUHAHAHAHAHA"
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/printed-heart-c/ [wired.com]
"Organ ‘Printing’ Creates Beating Heart Cells"
"A Missouri professor took several types of chicken heart cells and 3D printed them into large sheet
Cartoon character cakes (Score:1)
Shaped like real cartoon characters!
"Timmy, do you want Mickey's arm or his leg?"
Make me a... (Score:1)
sudo make me a sandwich
M
Re: (Score:1)