Shapeways lets Internet users manufacture goods

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — In a step toward the type of future pictured in the hit film "Iron Man," a firm in the Netherlands is letting people fabricate items designed in three-dimensions on the Internet.

Shapeways chief executive Peter Weijmarshausen depicts the "rapid manufacture" service launched online this week as a natural extension of a trend in which people make videos, music, and written works on the Internet.

"People are creative in their leisure time; uploading films to YouTube, making profiles at social networking websites and posting on blogs," Shapeways executive Jochem de Boer told AFP in an interview this week.

"They like to turn ideas into reality."

With the Shapeways service, instead of digital content people design items that are...