There has been a nearly uncountable number of technological developments in the past 50 years, some of which have really taken off, cell phones for example, and some of which that do really amazing things but seem to be nonexistent in the consumer market, such as 3D printers. And it's strange to see the difference between how people perceive these two examples; cell phones are so inherently familiar to people because of how widespread they've become, so when a new development for something as common as smartphones becomes available, people are able to get super excited about it. But when 3D printing makes a major advancement that's equally, if not more, impressive, people miss out on it because it doesn't affect us directly. So what's the deal with this supposedly incredible technology? What all can it do? And why isn't it consumer friendly yet?

Much of the idea behind printing objects in three dimensions has to do with it just being a simple step up from printing images in two dimensions. And when you're trying to follow up one of the most influential inventions ever (the printing press) by literally adding another dimension to it, the idea could either never reach the influence the original concept had or it could just completely blow it out of the water. And it honestly has the potential to do so.

3D printing was invented in the early 1980s by a guy named Chuck Hull, and the process he patented was what he called "stereolithography," wherein he could create solid, three dimensional objects by successively printing thin layers of a certain material on top of one another. And this simple idea has evolved significantly since. Most modern day 3D printers work by starting with a liquid printing material, whether it be plastic, glass, metal, or even concrete, that solidifies after being placed by the machine. And because of our ability to change that material, 3D printing's potential goes through the roof, literally. No seriously, we are actually 3D printing houses now. But what makes this technology really interesting is how small we are able to go with it. For example, we are able to 3D print things on a cellular level, which allows us to step into the world of biology and medicine. This means that we could eventually start 3D printing organs for people who need them, or even print artificial meat.

But what does this mean for you? Well, think about how useful regular printers were for us (before we went mostly digital). Now imagine having your own 3D printer in your house. This would allow you to download the design for any type of object you might need in your house. Yet the main limiting factor of 3D printing, like most things, is it's cost. So until the price comes down quite a bit from it's current price of about $500, or until the consumer usefulness increases, we won't be seeing them in your local Walmart any time soon.