14 DAY TRIAL // The ease and speed with which guns were 3D printed, and the way they proliferated within days of their initial introduction, kicked up a hornet's nest like few were kicked up before.
Now, as officials are panicking and running in circles while trying to ban distribution of everything from the guns themselves to the 3D models, a Japanese company has added its two cents.
Dai Nippon Printing (DNP), one of Japan's greatest 3D printing companies, has invented a software that will prevent the manufacture of illegal items.
The software is also supposed to recognize copyrighted materials and block their reproduction. The same goes for characters, emblems, modified logos and designs, even objects printed by other 3D printers.
In all honesty, it sounds like a rather radical knee-jerk reaction to something that will certainly keep happening under the table no matter how many regulations are set in place.
Still, as much as I hate to say it, patents have already been filed for 3D printing techniques and models (even though some are crying foul and accusing MakerBot of theft), so a program that can determine whether or not something is legal to print will probably become commonplace.
DNP's software accesses a huge database of patterns, algorithms and raw 3D data to analyze STL files from scanners, 3D objects and CAD/CAM designs.