3-D Printing Pens 2.0: Smaller, Lighter and More Nimble

3-D doodling may feel like one of those "back to the future' concepts. Well, the future is already becoming old-school because there's already a next-generation 3-D printing pen.

A team of three inventors in Europe -- Delphine Eloise Wood, Anton Suvorov, and Ismail Baran -- have announced they will be taking their 3-D printing doodle pen, the Lix 3-D Pen, to the crowdfunding site Kickstarter.

3-D doodling means that you can draw in the air. It sounds pretty far out. We had to check out the video (embedded below) to understand completely.

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Lix bills itself as "the smallest 3-D pen in the world," with a thickness comparable to a normal writing pen. Others on the market, such as the 3Doodler, have been larger and more bulky.

Still, Lix isn't as easy to use as an everyday pen; it has to be plugged into a USB port and the user needs to feed a plastic string into it. But the output may be worth it: the pen allows a user to doodle in three dimensions by quickly melting and then cooling the plastic to form freestanding shapes.

When it comes to market, the Lix 3-D is estimated to cost $139.95. A limited number will be available for $70 for pre-order when the Kickstarter campaign launches, according to a company press release.

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