Hologram-Powered 3D Printer Works Thousands of Times Faster Than The Competition

Remember Daqri, the startup that developed augmented reality helmets to Siemens and Hyperloop employees? They’ve had a breakthrough with a 3D printer that delivers “thousands of times faster than any other method on the market” #todaymagic

Digital Trends reported they have developed a next-gen hologram-powered 3D printer. The tech behind it is called “Software Defined Light” and it’s the method through which a program can manipulate a light’s speed. By doing so, it creates millions of holograms that actually resemble the projections we’ve seen in movies. These holograms are what now power their revolutionary 3D printer. “The [software defined light] modulator is able to change the speed of individual bundles of light and cause them to interfere into analog light fields. This is essentially an object made out of light in three dimensions. When we form one of these objects inside a monomer resin, the light starts a chain reaction and solidifies into a polymer. The reaction happens all at once and it doesn’t matter how big or small the object is — you get an instant 3D print.”, explained Brian Mullins, CEO of Daqri. 

By having this amazing printing power, it can finish whole projects instantly and thus, have a serious speed advantage over the competition. Daqri says that they don’t even need support materials to hold the object together during the printing process.

So when are we going to see this tech in action and more importantly, on the market? The company is vague on the subject, adding only that the expected deadline is 2019.