Oct. 3, 2014 | By Alec
Food printing is still one of the largest challenges in the field of 3D printing. Though various 3D printed meals have been sighted across the world, these are all but completely functional. Many can only print a single or a handful of ingredients, while the cooking phase is still a major obstacle for many of them. Finally, making the printer affordable, and its meals edible and tasty, still poses a lot of problems. Nonetheless, some excellent steps have been made with 3D printers like the Foodini and the F3D printer.
However, this isn't stopping a bunch of Indian students with a vision. The group, who call themselves 'The Ninjas', are design students at the Indian Institute of technology, Guwahati. They have developed a concept wherein food printers are used to revolutionize air travel as part of their entry for the international student design competition OzCHI24 last month.
The idea itself is promising and everyone who's ever flown anywhere can relate to it: Airplane food is terrible, why not improve it? We've all been served disgusting meals aboard airplanes that would make even the worst and lazy student ashamed, but the Ninjas feel that 3D food printing technology could change all that. Instead of the traditional system, where off-site catering companies preparing meals (who-knows-how-many) days in advance and loading them onto planes, their Sky Kitchen-plan sees 3D food printers aboard planes that can print just about any meal on-demand.
While a leap of the imagination as far as food printers are concerned, the idea is that passengers can just order whatever they want through the TV screens in the chairs in front of them. Want your food sliced in a particular way? Want some unusual pizza topping that is so difficult to find? Want a hamburger for breakfast? Only if you don't mind the staring. If the Sky Kitchen works as they envision, the sky will literally and figuratively be the limit.
This concept, obviously, sounds wonderful. Who wouldn't sign up for freshly made meals on airplanes? But for now it will necessarily stay a concept that will be difficult to realize. Even if the printing technology reaches that stage, there are still the practical realities to deal with. How many printers are necessary to feed a full 747? I hope you don't mind waiting for your food. And of course it won't be a cheap dinner either.
Furthermore, we'd have to patiently wait for food printing technology to catch up the Ninjas' plans. They feature the Foodini 3D printer in their video, but we'll have to wait for their late 2014 preview before we can start thinking about the limitless options that printer might bring. However, all great inventions start with an unhealthy helping of ambition and a side of daydreaming, so who knows what the future might bring? Airplane food can't get any worse.
Take a look at this video detailing the Sky Kitchen plans:
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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What do you mean in the future !!! The last inflight offering I had looked like it had been extruded from a furry animal...
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