3D pr0n coming real soon nowYes! Yes! YES!By Nick Booth: Friday, 07 March 2008, 3:29 PMA HOT new 3D printing technique has been invented in Japan that creates images that appear to float above a printed surface.A three dimensional image can be digitised, and recreated elsewhere, in living breathing colour. We’re edging closer to teleporting by the minute.As usual, this technology can be used for good purposes. But if it falls into the wrong hands, it can be used for evil.When the researchers at Toyohashi University of Technology began refining the process for hologram recording, we like to think they had the best intentions. Perhaps they were thinking how porn publishers might use 3D images. We certainly are.Since the images aren’t true holograms, they don’t need massive equipment [Fnaaaar! - Ed] to produce them. But they’re as near as dammit holograms. The printers create the images from 3D digital data, created using CAD systems or recorded with CT scanners. Which means, inevitably, these printers will be hijacked for evil purposes.Yes, that’s right, boring executives will inevitably use them to create tedious presentations with titles like "Leveraging core competencies and maximising blue sky out of the box paradigms in the telecoms metaverse"And to think those Japanese scientists sweated blood to create this technology. Sheesh.To create these floating images, they coated a clear sheet with a photosensitive polymer. Then laser light was used to define parts of the picture as tiny dots with a diameter measured in nanometres. By slightly altering the refractive index of these dots, the light bouncing off the printed surface generates interference patterns. These then assembled to produce an image that appears to float.The result is a printed object measuring about 5cm square, which appears to hover a few centimetres above the sheet. Printing a 1-metre-square picture this way takes around 30 minutes. They’re going to start making them this summer.This technology would be great for the porn industry. But Optware concedes it could well end up in the hands of advertising execs, product catalogue makers, cheesy direct marketing hacks or any other otiose halfwit who gets moist on Powerpoint.
