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Back in May 2005 csven kicked off an interesting conversation about how you could grab 3D data from virtual worlds and send it off to a 3D printer for fabrication. Now Boing Boing has reported some more coolness - Michael Frumin from Eyebeam's OpenLab has printed a World of Warcraft character in 3D:
His latest project is the OpenGLExtractor (OGLE), essentially a "screen grab" application for 3D data. For example, Frumin used his software to capture a World of Warcraft character from within the game and physically rendered it using a 3D printer. He also mashed up characters from SecondLife and Google Earth, and imported chunks of Google Earth data into Maya. OGLE seems to be a pretty amazing tool for blurring the virtual and real.