Print A Drink creates edible 3D objects in your cocktail

We've seen dozens of uses of 3D printing, some of them even bordering on the bizarre or the insane. This one, however, probably takes the cake. Or in this case, the drink. Forget 3D printed chocolate car. But while Print A Drink doesn't exactly print a whole drink for you, it does print out fascinating 3D structures inside them. All while there's already an existing, drinkable liquid sitting inside the glass, making it almost too wasteful to actually drink the thing.

It is yet another example of the fusion of technology and design, in a way that you might not have thought possible. For one, 3D printing using liquid materials is already a tall order. But printing liquid inside another liquid, especially with the latter being only some regular cocktail substance, is almost mind-blowing.

Conceived and developed in the University of Arts and Design Linz's new creative robotics laboratory, the setup makes use of a high-end KUKA robot, a KUKA LBR iiwa to be precise, to inject edible liquid inside a cocktail. The exact nature and makeup of these "high quality ingredients" are being kept secret, which means not everyone will be able to replicate this process just yet. Then again, now that the idea is out, who knows how long before that happens.

It does take about a minute for the "augmented cocktail" to be ready, as the structure is printed drop by drop. But you'll probably be too entranced by the process to notice.

Have we reached peak 3D printing? 3D printed drinks #arselectronica16 pic.twitter.com/7jSLbtLcmN

— Jesse LouisRosenberg (@nervous_jesse) September 9, 2016

SOURCE: Print A Drink

VIA: Ufunk