MakerBot takes wraps off the Digitizer 3D scanner (pictures)
At SXSW 2013, MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis introduces his company's new Digitzer printer, which uses a laser scanner to grab a 3D rendering of an object to be replicated and printed.
James Martin
James Martin is the Managing Editor of Photography at CNET.
His photos capture technology's impact on society - from the widening wealth gap in San Francisco, to the European refugee crisis and Rwanda's efforts to improve health care.
From the technology pioneers of Google and Facebook, photographing Apple's Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai, to the most groundbreaking launches at Apple and NASA, his is a dream job for any documentary photography and journalist with a love for technology.
Exhibited widely, syndicated and reprinted thousands of times over the years, James follows the people and places behind the technology changing our world, bringing their stories and ideas to life.
During his opening keynote speech at South by Southwest 2013 in Austin, Texas, MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis took the wraps off his company's new Digitizer printer, which uses a laser scanner to grab a 3D rendering of an object to be replicated and printed.
2 of 4 James Martin/CNET
Firing laser scanners at a garden gnome
"It's kind of like Tron," MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis explained, as a prototype of the new Digitzer 3D printer fired its laser scanners at a garden gnome.
3 of 4 James Martin/CNET
Gnome closeup
A closeup of the gnome setup. The Digitizer will be available this coming fall, and is ideal for scanning cylinder-shaped objects between 2 inches and 8 inches high. It will work under indoor light, which is important to note since it uses lasers to scan the objects.
4 of 4 James Martin/CNET
3D printing taking the world by storm
The impact of the MakerBot printers can't be understated, Pettis argued. From children born without hands who were given prosthetics 3D-printed for them, to companies that use MakerBot's tools to prototype their prototypes before going to their larger prototype-making machines, to a set designer on New York's Broadway who prints out her sets overnight, 3D printing has taken the world by storm, he said.
