4D printing is the process that happens after 3D printing. Once an object is printed using a specialist 3d printer, this object on its own, will transform into the its desired state. For example, one day in the future, you will buy a a chair from your store, take it home, and watch the chair transform itself to a chair. The process to do this will be a mixture of using a certain material mixed with an external source for energy, for example water used as an energy source to trigger the transformation. Below is an image as an example. Along plastic material is dipped into water and this plastic comes alive and forms into a shape of a square.
Architect and computer scientist Skylar Tibbets from MIT explains that 4D printing process can build bikes, cars, and even buildings! He believes that this technology can one cure diseases. Once diagnosed with a disease, you can be injected with nano robots that can track down the disease and eradicate it. This all sounds like some sci-fi movie, but, this is actually reality, the future is hear.
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The simple image above shows the evolution of the d dimension. 4D showing how the object forms into shape from a 3D form.
