A patent application was granted to Apple which lays outs a 3D printing system that works in tandem with ARKit Augmented Reality.

With a new patent related to 3D printing, is Apple planning to take additive manufacturing into the mainstream?

The company’s patent was granted this week and involves an advanced 3D printing system that works with Augmented Reality (AR) and their ARKit system. The patent was actually granted to Metaio, a AR software company which was acquired by Apple back in 2015.

So how does Apple intend to revolutionize 3D printing? Essentially, they’ll be tackling an aspect not currently addressed by the technology. That is, they want to use 3D printers to print onto existing objects.

But how does AR fit into this? The patent explains: “Augmented reality (AR) could be employed to visually augment the printed real object by providing an AR visualization of overlaying computer-generated virtual information (i.e. computer-generated image) with a view of the printed object or a part of the printed object.”

ARKit Could Make 3D Printing Insanely Great

Currently, it’s possible to 3D print almost any shape on a printing bed. However, Apple want to make it possible to 3D print onto the surface of an object. In this way, it’d be possible to improve the existing object.

Of course, as this has never been done before, it comes with many hurdles. For example, printing on an existing object poses challenges such as how to adjust a print head or where to place the object.

However, Apple’s system would use a pre-determined alignment between the existing object and the print. AR would be used to visually augment the printed physical object.

The patent explains further: “The virtual information can be any type of visually perceivable data such as texture, texts, drawings, videos, or their combination. The view of the printed object or the part of the printed object could be perceived as visual impressions by user’s eyes and/or be acquired as an image by a camera.”

AR would help clearly visualize the addition to the existing object. Although this advancement is likely to be a long way off making it into the iOS update, it certainly poses an interesting challenge for Apple.

Want to find out more? The patent was published by the United States patent office and can be found here.

Source: Patently Apple