Make Your Friends Into Action Figures!

This week's Featured Online Resource is Shape Me Miniatures from a company called Shapeways.

First, about the company and its services. They provide 3D printing--say you'd like a small sailboat for a knicknack. About three inches long, four or five ounces. You'd like to design your own. Use CAD or some sort of design software, send them the design, and via 3D printing they fabricate the boat or whichever item you choose and ship it to you. Futurist Ray Kurzweil has predicted that in the future all objects we own, we'll make ourselves by this method, and we're now beginning to see the technology in play.

As for the Shape Me Miniatures, they are little dolls (though busts are also available) in the image of your mother, grandmother, friends, etc. You send in a photo from the front and one in profile, pay your fee, and get back a little doll.

Please excuse the way in which this post sounds like a commercial. I'm not interested in generating business for this company, but providing information. The fact that 3D printing is now afoot and seemingly relatively accessible , is to me, an epochal happening in the world of information. It is another way in which the line between creator and consumer is blurred.

So, while we usually include websites that provide free information, this one's an exception, and I think just looking at the website is enlightening and inspiring.