懶人福利：漢堡可以直接“打印”了

As further proof that you can now 3D-print anything, a company called Natural Machines has introduced a 3D printer for food.

The "Foodini," as it's called, isn't too different from a regular 3D printer, but instead of printing with plastics, it deploys edible ingredients squeezed out of stainless steel capsules: "It's the same technology," says Lynette Kucsma, co-founder of Natural Machines, "but with plastics there's just one melting point, whereas with food it's different temperatures, consistencies and textures. Also, gravity works a little bit against us, as food doesn't hold the shape as well as plastic."

At the Web Summit technology conference in Dublin, the Barcelona-based startup is showing off the machine, which it says is the only one of its kind capable of printing a wide range of dishes, from sweet to savoury.

"In essence, this is a mini food manufacturing plant shrunk down to the size of an oven," Kucsma said, pointing out that at least in the initial stage the printer will be targeted mostly at professional kitchen users, with a consumer version to follow, at a projected retail price of around $1,000.

In principle, the Foodini sounds like the ultimate laziness aid: press a button to print your ravioli. But Natural Machines is quick to point out that it's designed to take care only of the difficult and time-consuming parts of food preparation that discourage people from cooking at home, and that it promotes healthy eating by requiring fresh ingredients prepared before printing.

Nevertheless, the company is working with major food manufacturers to create pre-packaged plastic capsules that can just be loaded into the machine to make food, even though they assure these will be free of preservatives, with a shelf life limited to five days.

The printing process is slow, but faster than regular 3D printing. Other than being capable of creating complex designs, such as very detailed cake decorations or food arranged in unusual shapes, the Foodini can be useful for recipes that require precision and dexterity, like homemade pizza or filled pasta.

Currently, the device only prints the food, which must be then cooked as usual. But a future model will also cook the preparation and produce it ready to eat.

The idea also comes with a social element too. "There's a touchscreen on the front that connects to a recipe site in the cloud, so it's an internet-of-things, connected kitchen appliance," said Kucsma. Users will also be able to control the device remotely using a smartphone, and share their recipes with the community.最近一家名叫“自然機器”（Natural Machines）的公司稱他們已有可以打印食物的3D打印機。這似乎是要進一步證明現在3D打印可以用於任何領域。

這臺名叫“Foodini”的機器和其它普通的3D打印機差別不大，但是它的原料並不是塑料，而是將食材搗成泥狀裝進乾淨的鋼製膠囊盒裏，機器可以通過操作膠囊盒完成食物的打印。自然機器公司的創建人之一利奈特·庫斯馬（Lynette Kucsma）表示“Foodini使用的技術跟其它3D打印機一樣。不同的是，打印塑料的機器只有一個熔點，而打印食物的機器需要設置不同的熔點來適應不同的溫度、粘稠度和食物材質。而且重力也是一個很棘手的問題，因爲泥狀食物不像塑料那樣，它會因重力而變形。”

在都柏林（Dublin）舉行的網絡技術峯會上，這家位於巴塞羅那的創業公司展示了這臺機器，並稱這是唯一一種能夠打印各種各樣的食物的3D打印機，無論是甜點還是開胃菜都不在話下。

“其實它就是一個縮小到跟烤箱一樣大的小型食品加工廠，”庫斯馬說道，他表示至少在最初階段foodini的目標客戶是專業廚師，接下來還有會有針對大衆的版本，零售價格預計在1000美元左右。

Foodini聽起來像是懶人的終極福利：按一下按鈕，你就可以享受你的方餃了。但自然機器公司很快回應說，這臺機器的目的只是幫助人們省去最耗時最複雜的食物製作工序，並且要求用戶準備新鮮的食材作爲打印原料，提倡健康飲食。

不過，目前該公司仍在和主要的食品製造商合作，旨在研發出預先裝好食材的塑料膠囊盒。這種包裝好的膠囊盒能夠直接放在機器上打印食物。該公司強調這些膠囊盒不添加防腐劑，因此保質期僅有五天。

Foodini打印食物的速度較慢，但快於普通的3D打印機。除了可以打印造型複雜的食物如精美的蛋糕裝飾品或特殊擺盤的菜餚外，它還可以滿足一些食譜對食材克數精確度和菜餚設計靈巧性的要求，比如自制披薩餅或意大利麪。

目前機器打印出的食材需要再進行常規的烹飪，但未來的機器可以自動將食材加工成可食用的成品。

這臺機器還具有社交功能。庫斯馬錶示，機器前面有一個觸摸屏，它可以連接到雲端裏的食譜網站，所以這也算是一個物聯網連接着廚房設備。用戶可以通過智能手機遠程操控這臺機器，也能將菜譜上傳到網上與朋友分享。