h a l f b a k e r y
It might be better to just get another gerbil.
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Lunch Printer
"Let's see... Chicken Lasagne with Roasted Potatoes and Steamed Carrots with Hollandaise" | |
Roland keyed his order into the machine, selecting 'Crispy" for the roasted potatoes.
A gentle whirring sound indicated the machine was working, while an LCD display indicated what was coming and the progress being made, to deliver it.
This would be the idea to make him wealthy beyond his wildest
dreams, Roland realised.
Using very similar technology to that used to "print" concrete walls for houses, Roland had perfected a way to generate food items, using a couple of basic proteins and starches and a range of flavouring agents. Differing textures were achieved by adding different length starch and lipid chains. Cleanliness and hygiene were simple, with the sterilised, frozen ingredients able to be thawed on demand and "cooked" within 2-3 minutes of order.
Colour was the most important thing... people were unwilling to eat lasagne that was a uniform pale grey, yet would gobble down anything that looked, smelled and tasted approximately right.
Salads and fruit were still proving difficult, but foods that were essentially large, amorphous masses were well within the machine's capabilities.
The heating cycle through, the machine went PING!, to let Roland know his instant lasagne was ready
Concrete wall printer
http://www.newscien...rticle.ns?id=dn4764
for [bristolz], you skeptic! [ConsulFlaminicus, Feb 21 2006]
3d prototype 'printing', including various materials
http://www.newscien...rticle.ns?id=dn3238
and this [ConsulFlaminicus, Feb 21 2006]
interesting kind of cooking here......
http://www.nytimes....partner=rssuserland
[xandram, Feb 21 2006]
[link]
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I recently read where ink jet technology is now being used to print skin for burn victims. I think your scenario may be a bit further out. |
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Great idea... I'm SOOOOOOO having a hard time not using the word "magic" in a sentence though. |
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I had fish 'n' chips once that looked as if it had come straight out of a printer, then I realised that it was the ink off of the newspaper mincing with the batter. |
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//mincing with the batter// So, was this in a gay sports bar then? |
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I have an idea for edible food adverts printed in
magazines, so I'm bound to like this + |
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//Salads and fruit were still proving difficult//I'd have thought that lettuce would be a doddle. |
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//So, was this in a gay sports bar then?// |
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Nope, why? is that like Electric six/ Electric Fish? |
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Oh, I'm no skeptic of object printing. I'm quite familiar with the technology. In fact, I think that inkjet technology will do the kinds of things that nanotechnology pundits have been pointing at well before nanotechnology does. Of course, at that point, inkjet technology may well be nanotechnology. |
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The more I've thought about this, the more I think that you could have dust made from freeze-dried food, and make up a lunch in the same way that the ZCorp 3d printer uses gypsum. The big change would be that the dust would be applied selectively through ink jet type heads just like the colored binder in the zcorp machine. |
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I know it sounds like magic. The trouble with that is the technology already exists. |
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The basic building blocks of the food can be selectively applied in fixed ratios, and flavours, textures and colours are simply additives. The printer merely builds this pap in layers, to generate a shape we associate with a particular food, to make the experience more comfortable for us. |
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Think of it like electronically shaped seafood extender (which is already available in a number of fishlike shapes) or a 3D rendering of steak and potatoes (Again, available on supermarket shelves, made from soy protein and vegetable fats and flavourings). |
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It's gonna taste like hell, but, hey, so does an Mburger. |
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The scenario is out there, but so was the idea of "printing" a transplantable ear, a few years ago. Yes, there's a team working on that, as part of a burns rehabilitation project. |
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This is much more like a fused deposition modeler than the Z-Corp machines. |
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