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Doodle in the air with a 3-D printing pen

Image of 3Doodler
The 3Doodler is a pen that allows users to draw in the air. It is 3-D printing without software or computers.WobbleWorks via YouTube

A new pen that allows doodlers to doodle in the air aims to open the door of 3-D printing to anyone old enough to handle a pen with a scorching hot tip. No software or computers required. Even messy scribbles take on new dimensions.

The 3Doodler was launched today on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter by toy company WobbleWorks. As of this writing, $75 buys a pen and two bags of plastic “ink.” For the sake of comparison, the MakerBot Replicator 2, a popular model among 3-D-printing hobbyists, retails for $2,199.

The new pen looks like a blackened cucumber and has the heft of an apple. It extrudes heated plastic that cools quickly and solidifies in the air. So, for example, draw a box on a piece of paper and then lift then pen upwards from the corners to make a 3-D cube.

Users can also doodle on paper then lift their designs off the page and keep adding to it. For those who need a guide, the company is releasing print-out stencil kits that allow users to trace designs such as an Eiffel Tower and then join the pieces together with the pen.

One word of caution: The pen’s tip can get as hot as 518 degrees Fahrenheit. The plastic is safe to touch once it leaves the pen, but WobbleWorks recommends the pen be kept out of reach of children under the age of 12.

To learn more, visit the Kickstarter page and check out the promotional video below.

– via The Next Web

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.