A turntable! Lasers! MakerBot opened preorders for its Digitizer 3D scanner today, revealing it will cost $1,400 and ship in mid-October. Objects are placed on a rotating turntable. The scanner uses a camera and two laser to generate hundreds of thousands of data points that are turned into a 3D digital file. The entire process takes about 12 minutes. It works for objects that weigh less than 6.6 pounds and measure up to 8 inches across. Scanned objects can then be printed, modified or shared on an online 3D design marketplace like the Thingiverse. 3D scanners are growing in popularity because of the range of print jobs they open up to the average 3D printer owner. With a 3D scanner, objects don’t have to be designed from scratch. An existing physical object can just be placed on the scanner bed and a replica is printed.