Microsoft has begun touting Windows 8.1′s 3-D printing support at 18 of its retail locations throughout the United States. Store visitors can watch live demonstrations that illustrate how the forthcoming OS update will allow users to harness the technology, which stacks layers of plastic and other materials to “print” physical objects.
The in-store presentations use MakerBot 3-D printers, although Windows 8.1 will work with printers from other manufacturers as well. MakerBot was also part of Microsoft’s keynote presentation at Build, when it released Windows 8.1 as a public preview and demonstrated many of its new capabilities, including 3-D printing. Microsoft has subsequently said Windows 8.1 will make printing 3-D objects as easy as printing Word documents.
3-D printing has been gaining mainstream attention over the last several months. The technology factored into a number of products at the CES consumer electronics tradeshow in January, and earlier this year, Cisco’s futurists identified it as a potentially disruptive technology that could not only change the way many products are manufactured and distributed, but perhaps even produce artificial organs suitable for human transplants.