4 AXYZ 3D-Printed Wood Furniture Enables Embedded Electronics

The continued exploration of 3D printing has resulted in a variety of uses and materials, some of them promising huge breakthroughs in the future, and others refining the way existing projects and technologies are approached. Regarding that latter category, the company 4 AXYZ has developed a method for 3D printing wood furniture with embedded electronics.

4 AXYZ is a startup with big plans, namely that it will eventually offer consumers an affordable way to get beautiful, customizable furniture of a high-quality nature. The image above reflects the nature of its offering — not just the embedded electronic piece, but the wood itself, which isn't natural, but instead the process of its 3D printing technology.

The technology promises to offer several advantages over traditional furniture making, not the least of which is customizing a furniture item so that it is best sized for one's specific home or layout. Need a coffee table that is a couple inches shorter than the default offering? 3D printing can make that request simple. It can also allow for multiple materials to be combined into a single product.

More exciting, however, is the possibility it holds in the future of smart homes and home automation. The startup is presently in works with the company A Catedral over its smart windows, offering a way for chips to be embedded in the wood frames. In the future, says 4 AXYZ's Founder and CEO Samir Shah, the startup could begin printing so-called "smart wood", which has embedded sensors capable of detecting things like human presence and ambient temperatures.

SOURCE: GigaOm