Here’s a tasty morsel of future news: The first 3-D scanning apps are making their way to an iPhone near you.  3-D modeling software has been around for years, but it’s generally been complicated, and expensive, enough that only professionals ever bothered.  Now that design firm Autodesk is making their “123D Catch” app available for free download, anyone can dabble in digitally modeling 3D objects.  (A PC version is also available).  All you need to do is take a bunch of photos of the object from different angles, and let the cloud-based software work its magic.  The following video, while unabashedly promotional, showcases some pretty stunning results:

And here’s Singularity Hub with more.

The software, according to the S/H article, is a bit quirky and doesn’t work well in all circumstances.  But this is just the first taste of modeling software that anyone can use, and it can only get better from here.  The best part is what you can do once you get a 3-D scan.  Namely, hook it up to a 3D printer or a 3rd party service, and print out a copy in the exact same shape.   That’s right, Star Trek’s famous replicator is coming to a future near you!