The Lynx A camera brings us one step closer to owning Star Trek’s replicator

There’s been a lot of talk about the 3D printing revolution, with very little real-world progress. Now that the Lynx A camera has appeared on Kickstarter it’s all about to step up a notch. And copyright lawyers better be on stand-by.

With the Lynx A, a 14in tablet style camera, you can film any object and upload it to your 3D printer’s software ready to print. This is exciting for anyone who wants to print objects but doesn’t know how to use 3D modeling CAD software. Not so exciting for companies that don't want their products cloned for free.

It also means mapping the inside of a room, for example, is a doddle – ideal for architects, set designers and even estate agents. Plus there’s a motion capture option that lets you record a person’s movements to use on a virtual character – like in a computer game, for example. We could see this being big in the open source gaming revolution that consoles like Ouya are about to start.

So what’s the catch? Just like its 3D printing counterpart this will be expensive – US$1800 (£1145) – for the casual user and is aimed more at those who want to use it as a tool. But, as potentially a cloner of anything, that price suddenly starts to look pretty cheap.

[Kickstarter via Engadget]

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