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A brief thought exercise into the future of digital objects.For: Resource InteractiveDate: Monday, March 29th, 2010

x...............................................Shay-Jahen D. Merritté

Adj. /ˈtæn•dʒ•ɪtl/Describes the ability of something manipulated digtially to move to the physical realm. An example of something tangital is a photo on a digital camera that exists as digital information until it can be printed out as a physical photograh.

Noun /wɛb•dʒɪkt/The designation for any physical thing that was made from a digital file with both the physical and digital item having the same properties. An example of a webject would be a lego mini-figure.

Tangible: Adj. /ˈtæn•dʒə•bəl/Capable of being touched; discernible by the touch; material or substantial.

Digital: Adj. /ˈdɪ•dʒ•ɪtl/Available in electronic form; readable and manipulable by computer.

Web: Noun. /wɛb/ The complete set of documents residing on all Internet servers.

Object: Noun. /ˈɒb•dʒɪkt/ anything that is visible or tangible and is relatively stable in form.

Tangital. Webjects. Defined

In the future you’ll be able to order a custom spork from a designer’s website for the specific types of foods you are going to eat at your company’s potluck. The website then sends that information to the 3D printer in the break room.

First the consumer goes to the designer’s website and uses their CAD interface to create their webject

From the CAD interface, the consumer can build a tangital file that can be used to create the actual webject.

Consumer+Software Interface Software Interface+Hardware Interface Hardware Interface+Product Product+Consumer

The tangital spork file is sent to the 3-D plastic printer in the break room to create a webject that matches the one the consumer created through the designer’s web interface.

The plastic printed webject is available for the consumer to use for their company’s potluck.

But tangital webjects do have a present.

Unfortunatly, that future is far off.

Rapid prototyping machines have been around for decades, however, CNC (computer numerically controlled) routers, laser, water-jet and plasma cutters, lathes and 3D plastic printers are for the most part still too expensive for the average consumer. Furthermore, the software and hardware also requires technical expertise and a learning curve that is beyond the average consumer.

... or at the very least, a near future. And they are creating new ways for business, technology and consumers to interact with each other.

Consumers Business

Technology

Tangital Webjects In The Present.

Consumer-Centric Pricing:

3.8MThe number of Webkinz active users, the most prevalent instance of physical and digital objects interacting.

10KThe number of products designed and sold by Shapeways, a social networking and open-source 3D printing collective.

20KThe number of products designed and sold by Ponoko, a social networking and open-source laser cutting collective.

500The number of proposed franchises of Techshop, a chain of tool shops that include 3D printers, routers and CNC machines for the average consumer.

3D Animation ToolsAutodesk Maya: $4,090Blender: $0

CNC Routing MachinesThermwood 400: $130,000BlackToe CNC: $4,000

3D Printing MachinesDesktop Factory: $125,000MakerBot: $995

3D Modeling ToolsAutodesk Maya: $3,999Google Sketchup: $0

Implications of Tangital Webjects on Strategy

Intellectual Property Cost of Capital Rivalry Environmental Footprint Cost Accounting Material Waste Sales Channels Publicity Future Planning Localization Competition Transportation Office Layout On Demand Inventory Materials Selection Depreciation Product Life Cycle Market Research Software Investments

Increased Customization Long Tail Customers Employee Retailer Relations Scheduling Training Time Tables State Of The Economy Sales Volume Networking Design Morale Layoffs Hardware Investment Publicity Process Design Outsourcing R&D Project Management Trending Finance Planning Internationality

Tangital Webjects And Location Based Marketing

With the dissemination of portable location aware devices, many marketing companies are looking to location-based marketing as the future of marketing, providing on-demand, relevant messages to consumers. One of the most popular of these new applications is Foursquare, which combines a gaming aspect with location information. The use of tangital webjects could greatly improve this experience.

The Foursquare application networks with the user’s friends’ Foursquare applications competing to see who frequents the greatest variety of places and the same place multiple times to win mayorships and rewards.

The Foursquare application requires users to be constantly engaged with the application to remain competitive, to score points and gain rewards.

On-Demand, when a user achieves a new badge or becomes the mayor of someplace that involves a reward, a custom coin is instantly produced and sent to the consumer..

The FourSqaure users receives they’re mayorship coin that was personalized with their name, and the custom design created by the establishment that they are the mayor of. Provides and tangible reward that moves beyond the digital realm to make their rewards even more personal, engaging and exctitng.

iPhones with Four Square App 3-D Plastic Printer Mayorship Coin

Tangital Webjects And Augmented Reality Games

CNC Laser Cutter

AR Player Chip

AR Board

iPhone with Game App

iPhone with Game App

Augmented Reality (AR) is an exciting technology that merges the physical world with the digital world, which means that tangital webjects are incredibly relevant. In this AR game example, two players are playing a role-playing adventure game.

The game application is built to be networked with your friend’s phone who is playing the adventure with you next to you, as well as the rest of the people throughout the world who are also playing the game, working together through their own adventures.

As the players go through the AR adventure, their characters grow and develop, with new skills, weapons, etc. The player’s character becomes more personal both in the physical world as well as the digital game play.

As the players’ characters grow and develop, their physical playing piece changes. The new character piece will be on-demand be sent to a laser cutter to be cut out and sent to the player for new dynamics in their AR gameplay

AR games are engaging because the combine the excitement of a video game with the imagination of a board game. These aspects are furthered by tangital webjects, which allows the player to not just play the game, but actually make the game at the same time.

Tangital Webjects And The Tablet

iPad With Digital Wired Issue And Phone Advertisement.

3-D Plastic Printer Webject Sample Phone

Tangital Webjects also have interesting applications for strictly digital objects such as digital magazines on the iPad. In this case, the digital magazine directly translates to directly physical solutions. In this hypothetical situation, the digital version of Wired is showcasing a new phone design, if a consumer is thinking about purchasing it, they can print out a 3-D model of the phone to take it around with them and see how it fits into their daily life.

Digital magazines for the iPad are inherently networked to the content servers as well as advertisers. If there are any new promotions or market or product changes, they can quickly and easily be updated in the digital magazine, in this case, the webject phone promotion.

If the reader wants to take advantage of the webject phone promotion, they would just have to click, complete some information and immediately their sample phone will on-demand be printed and sent to the reader to use, with no inventory being held.

The webject phone is made personally for that reader, the phone was specifically made for that person, they get to be early adopters and get to experience technology without spending a lot of their money. They can also pass it along to one of their friends.

A printer 3-D sample webject far surpasses the engagement of a print ad or even a video. The phone is thin? Now I’m really experiencing. It fits comfortably in your hand and the breast pocket of your jacket? Why yes it does. A webject is engaging.