You see that little girl? She’s happy because she just printed some little yellow shoes to match her little yellow shirt. THAT COULD BE YOU. We should have known by now, with sites like MyRobotNation and the taunting of Origo 3D Printer for kids, it was only a matter of time before big 3D print industry caught on, buying them all up or, in the case of 3D Systems, producing a kid-friendly printer and print service of their own. It’s called Cubify and they’re launching next week, January 10th, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Cubify 3D Printer

Announced via a press release from 3D Systems:

“Cubify.com combines coloring book simplicity with cloud gaming excitement to deliver a vivid 3D create-and-make experience through a fully integrated, fluid interface. With intuitive 3D apps, rich 3D printable content libraries of games, puzzles and collections, Cubify.com turns any mobile device, tablet or Kinect® into a powerful, digital canvas that unleashes creativity and brings ideas to life in 3D.”

“The company will showcase its new Cube™ 3D consumer printer and make available 3D collection libraries as downloads. 3D Systems calls on all aspiring 3D app developers and designers to become part of its groundbreaking Cubify.com community.”

That all sounds absolutely FABulous – create via an app, scan via your Kinect, print on your own 3D printer. Yes, via your Kinect. Along with the printer, they’ll also be demoing their Kinect-To-Print app, powered by Geomagic (reverse engineering software) to turn your reality into a printed product.

Another interesting aspect to all of this is the design of the printer. It’s top feeding through a single-axis extruder. The build platform moves down away from the extruder as the part is built layer-by-layer. It’s a very slick design, let’s just hope it prints as fast as they show in the video. Take a look.

YouTube video

3D Systems Press release via Deelip.com

Author

Josh is founder and editor at SolidSmack.com, founder at Aimsift Inc., and co-founder of EvD Media. He is involved in engineering, design, visualization, the technology making it happen, and the content developed around it. He is a SolidWorks Certified Professional and excels at falling awkwardly.