When you hear about a “little project” coming out of the MIT media lab, you can be sure that it will completely blow your mind. Its no revelation that whoever gets to work there is wicked smart and if you needed any proof, here it is: Cody Sumter and Jason Boggess, the two heroes of this story, have developed Minecraft.print, a pretty amazing little tool that lets you print three-dimensional objects previously created in Minecraft, from a simple cube to a model of the Starship Enterprise. The way it works is simple and made possible by Python.
As most of you know, in Minecraft you can build structures using various “materials” that come in the form of different cubes. Using a somewhat unusual but specific combination of these blocks you designate a three-dimensional area. The combination has to be unusual so that you won’t end up printing the whole Minecraft world. Afterwards, the script written in Python converts the area into a standard file for 3D printers. Sumter and Boggess have a put a video on youtube that shows you exactly how its done (see below). Their site also features a nice collections of 3D models that they have created using their “little project”. The one question that I just cant seem to answer: When do these kids ever study?
Check it out on: http://minecraftprint.com/
Or see for yourself, here is the vid: