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Ask HN: Are there examples of 3D printing data onto physical surfaces?

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1 hour agoby catapart
I had a thought about encoding a very small amount of data onto some kind of "disk" using 3D printing as the mechanism for filament-based storage. The assumption was that using common 3D printer measurement tools (like for bed-leveling) would provide a way to read back whatever data was encoded onto the surface.

Since that seems like a pretty well-known concept, crudely applied to a domain I haven't seen it in before - but is already large and growing fast - I'm assuming that others have thought of this? I was hoping maybe someone had implemented something like it? And then, obviously, if that proof of concept exists, I'd wonder about some kind of advanced version that used specialized equipment for the reading (and possibly the writing/printing).

In any case, I'm just curious. I was thinking about long term (century +) archival storage, or encryption keys only stored as the print with no digital copies. Stuff that wouldn't need tons of storage, but would be crucial to maintain statically. It probably wouldn't be useful for that, which is why I assume I'm not finding much in my searches for it. But I was just wondering if anyone knew about it, in case there is stuff it's good for.

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