When copying content had the cost structure of the printing press high set-up and low marginal costs copyright made sense.

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Neri Oxman, an architect and professor at the MIT Media Lab, is working on one such set of research using 3-D printing technology for buildings.

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The list includes the use of a Kinect camera and PC for physical rehabilitation, the 3D printing of embedded electrical technologies, a Lego set that helps bridge the gap between crustacean and robot and a device that employs an Arduino board and video games to help stroke victims recover motor skills.

ENGADGET

Global manufacturing is at the cusp of a massive transformation as the new economics of energy and labor plays out and a set of new technologies robotics, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and nanotechnology are advancing rapidly.

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As some of the later speakers at the conference pointed out, particularly Avi Reichental, Chief Executive Officer, 3D Systems and Neil Gershenfeld, Director, MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, global manufacturing is at the cusp of a massive transformation as the new economics of energy and labor plays out and a set of new technologies robotics, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and nanotechnology are advancing rapidly.

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The jobs of 36 workers at a newspaper printing plant at Thorpe St Andrew, near Norwich, are set to be lost.

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This week President Barack Obama set the tone for the coming year in his 2013 State of the Union address, which advocated 3D printing and called for a speedy transition towards renewable energy to help combat climate change.

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