14 DAY TRIAL // Mountain View, California-based startup Authentise might just make a name for itself thanks to the technology it has invented.
Called SendShapes, at least in its first version, the technology will launch next month and will make it so that 3D models are sent to 3D printers in such a way that they can only be printed once.
In other words, the printer won't receive a raw file. Instead, the method is similar to how Netflix sends viewers at home a stream of video frames the exact way a computer needs in order to play them.
Basically, SendShapes will send instructions to a 3D printer, instructions for how to create material. Said instructions are immediately discarded once the process is complete.
Thus, the printer never actually gets the full virtual representation of the design.
“We’re already talking to a number of people about using the technology to enable buying of designs online, with an iTunes-like functionality,” says Andre Wegner, cofounder and CEO of the company.