Traditional consumer products and merchandise usually have barcodes and tags that contain pricing and other related information about it. Recently, a new technology was developed by tech titan Microsoft that embeds this information directly onto the product itself.
This new technology was in conjunction with the rising popularity of 3D printing. Analysts believe that this new industry will be the next big thing in the manufacturing sector, and Microsoft already had a head start.
The concept of 3D printing involves creating objects from a digital blueprint, and 'printing' it with plastic 'ink'. Almost anything that can be imagined and rendered on a computer can be manufactured. This very fact changes how manufacturing and consumer products will work in the future, analysts believe.
According to a Microsoft Research release, the company developed a technology called 'InfraStructs', tags which are printed within the objects which can communicate different information to a scanner.
"It opens up new possibilities for encoding hidden information as part of the 3D fabrication process," explained Andy Wilson, Microsoft's principal researcher. Venture capitalists can look into new opportunities opened by 3D priniting technology, observers said. Startups and existing firms are developing similar technologies such as InsfraStructs are great choices for placements, seeing that the industry is soon to rise along with the advent of new manufacturing technology.
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