I am very excited to share this information with you all, especially all you online shopaholics. Technology is being invented, as I blog to you, that will allow us to print 3D hardware objects within our own homes. Within the next ten years we could be selecting images from online catalogues and making them into real life, usable products - all in our own living rooms!

The downside of shopping online is that you have to wait 3-5 working days at least before you receive your shopping (providing that it’s in stock, there’s no postal strike, snow storms and or confusion with delivery address) but with the ongoing development of 3D printing all this could change….

3D printing has been around for a fair amount of time, but the cost elements of this technology mean that it has always been totally out of reach to the average consumer. However – these costs are starting to significantly lower thanks to development in technology from companies like Freedom of Creation and RepRap.

Janne Kyttanen is the founder and creative director of Freedom of Creation who are a design and research company that are in the process of exploring the benefits that 3D printing (known as rapid prototyping) will be capable of providing. Mr Kyttanen was quoted as saying to the BBC:

‘Imagine the potential of this for the fashion industry. I can measure your body, in 3D, and I can make you perfectly fitting garments in the future without any sewing or stitching, making the needle and thread obsolete.’ Kyttanen’s company is now working with huge companies like Tommy Hilfiger and Hyundai in the production of their products. Fairly impressive stuff…

The other company that is looking to develop this technology for us, the consumer, is RepRap – this is short for Replicating Rapid Protyping. RipRap hope to offer a cheap way of replicating objects, including the printer itself! The first 3D printers that were around cost around £20,000 but with the help of RepRap we could be seeing prices reduced to just £300! – More than reasonable and now officially in reach of consumers like ourselves.

David Flanders is a technology enthusiast and blogger based in London, he says:

‘Imagine I print you a shoe. Your child grows, as they do. You take that shoe, you throw it back in the shredder – the shredder then processes the plastic. You scale up your design 0.3% and you’ve got your child’s next shoe. That’s the type of imaginative excitement that we are really talking about’

Err…No more back to school shoe shopping in September?!! No more endless queues in search of the right start-rite loafer for your whinging nine year old?!

Too good to be true?…… Well I think we just watch this space and keep everything crossed that this is in fact – the future!

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