[losvedir]

> The big winner will be an easy 3d modeler.

Oh, I agree 100%. I was thinking a phone could be ideal here. You'd just wave it through the air, drawing what you want, you could review what you've drawn in the screen and adjust parameters, and it could vibrate to give haptic feedback to help you draw in a straight line, or let you know when your path connects to another that you've drawn. Stuff like that.

Unfortunately, it looks like there's too much noise in the accelerometers to make the double integration to position meaningful. Something like Sensor Fusion[1] can make it more accurate by incorporating data from the gyroscope and compass, but even so it's not enough.

In any case, like you I hope someone develops something intuitive to really help 3D printing take off. The future should be interesting...

[1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7JQ7Rpwn2k

[Arelius]

I don't know if you've tried to use 3d non haptic input devices before, turns out that they suck for modelling. and not due to noise or lack of precision issues. The main problem is that a general person's absolute 3d positioning skills are pretty poor, and even there 3D directional skills are pretty damned poor.

Making general models by waving a phone around would be difficult enough, I can't imagine trying to use it to create a model detailed enough to actually print a usable part.

Now, making 3D modellers is actually something I have a lot of experience with. If anyone wants to have a discussion about how we could actually create an interface for a 3D modeller targeted at consumer modelling of 3D printable parts; Well, that's a discussion I'd love to have.