A maker is a person who creates and builds. A maker station is a collection of high-tech tools that give makers amazing powers to build and create whatever they can imagine. Almost, anyhow. The growing technologies of 3D printing, rapid prototyping, and automated construction are allowing people to design and build stuff with greater ease, and that tech is going on tour. The TekVenture Maker Station is a trailer packing all the latest in maker gear. Right now, that trailer is hooked up to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. If you’re in the area, check it out. Maker technology is the real version of a Star Trek replicator. Download a design, build it on your kitchen counter. In the future, maker tech will be as common as a microwave oven, and probably more important. Boing Boing has the story.
What could you do with a device that pops out any sort of object you want? How will traditional retail store survive in a world where most goods can be printed out on demand from a home appliance? Questions, questions…
When the first GI Joe pops out of that I’m sure that we’ll be seeing the bloated, amoeba juggernaut of the MAFIAA all over again.
Oh, don’t forget the miniature gaming scene. Check out Games Workshop minis. Some 10 to 15 human dollars for an inch-high chunk of plastic. Very scannable plastic. Imagine the row over PDF piracy, now in a physical object package that normal people can understand. Should be fun.