U.K. Supermarket Lets You 3-D Scan And Print Yourself In Store
Get replicas of everything from Fido to the new family minivan.
Add this one to your grocery list. A supermarket chain in the U.K. is offering a new service that lets customers scan objects and then get figurines of them 3-D-printed in ceramic. The 3-D service debuts tomorrow in the chain Asda’s York store.
Here’s how it will work. An employee wielding what looks a bit like an iron will scan the objects customers want. Pets, cars and family members are all scannable, Asda wrote in a blog post. Asda sends digital files of the scans to a facility where they’re printed, then shipped back to the Asda store. Customers can pick up their mini-mes a week after getting scanned, The Guardian reports.
The prints come in color, white or “bronze-style,” according to Asda. They start at £40 ($64) for an 8-inch-tall figurine.
This isn’t the first we’ve heard of an in-store, scan-yourself service. The MakerBot store in New York City installed a 3-D “photo booth” last year that let customers scan and 3-D replicate their busts in plastic. We are not prepared to call a trend, however, until we start seeing 3-D photo booths at wedding and bar mitzvah receptions.