3D printing - Rapid prototyping

Reminds me of some old sci-fi movie where the lasers created stuff out of thin air. We have come a long way.
James Dyson: Inventing the Wright way - New Scientist:
"The development of Dyson's domestic robots - indeed his entire invention process - is being boosted by 3D printing, also known as rapid prototyping. This technology allows the creation of 3D prototypes from a design created on a computer. The design is fed into a machine, which builds the object bit by bit using twin laser beams that fuse together layers of powdered nylon or metal. The result? Almost magically, you pull out from the dust a near perfect 3D 'printout' of the prototype you may later want to mass produce."