Skip to main content

Custom 3D-printed popsicles may be the best use of technology, ever

Pixsweet
What do you get when you cross candy with cutting-edge technology? Probably something a bit like Pixsweet, an innovative tech-savvy foodie startup that lets users design their own 3D-printed frozen popsicles.

That is a whole new take on the term “cool tech!”

Recommended Videos

“Pixsweet is the first 3D food customization platform and production facility that empowers everyone to create custom-shaped ice pops, and has emerged to disrupt the typical way we communicate with food,” co-founder Laura Kyttanen told Digital Trends. “The platform provides a unique offering to businesses and consumers for special occasions or events, such as conventions, weddings, birthdays, graduation, baseball games, corporate bashes, and even product launches. Basically, anything you want to communicate can be transformed into frozen flair.”

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Pixsweet does not actually print ice, of course. What the company instead offers is a service that lets users pick an image through its custom image search engine, or by uploading their own photo. Object recognition algorithms then use edge-detection technology to turn the two-dimensional image into a 3D one, before it’s 3D-printed as a mold, filled with your chosen flavoring, and shipped out.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Once you receive your finished piece in the mail, simply freeze it, and then enjoy at your leisure — all while feeling slightly smug as other less techie types enjoy their boring regular-shaped popsicles.

The options for what you can create are limitless: From printing Pokémon-themed ice pops for your kids to enjoy on a hot day, to designing a frozen likeness of your colleague Jacob May and then slowly eating it while staring menacingly at him from across the office. (This latter use is, admittedly, somewhat niche.)

“Currently, Pixsweet is focused on [business-to-business] clients and requires a minimum order quantity of 100,” Kyttanen said. “However we have opened up our online ecommerce site to consumers within the Los Angeles area.” Hopefully, it won’t be too long before it rolls out to further afield.

Luke Dormehl
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
This is how you can accidentally kill AMD’s best CPU for gaming
Someone holding the Ryzen 7 5800X3D in a red light.

It turns out that one of AMD's best gaming CPUs, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, can accidentally be killed if you try to overclock it, and it's all because there are no limitations as to how far you can push the processor.

Igor Wallossek of Igor's Lab found that the software used for overclocking and overvolting Ryzen CPUs currently doesn't impose any limits when you try to ramp up the voltage. And that's a recipe for turning a fun performance boost into an overclocking nightmare.

Read more
AMD is bringing 3D V-Cache back to Ryzen 7000 — but there’s a twist
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D socketed in a motherboard.

Great news for AMD fans -- the company has now officially confirmed that it will be bringing back 3D V-Cache in the upcoming Ryzen 7000 processors, as well as future Zen 5 CPUs.

Unfortunately, there is a catch -- it seems that the technology will still not be as widespread as some may have hoped for.

Read more
The AnkerMake M5 3D printer brings higher print speeds
The AnkerMake M5 on a desk.

Anker's first foray into the world of 3D printers, the AnkerMake M5, is available today on Kickstarter with a super early bird price of $429. It brings with it innovations not before seen in the 3D printing space.

Assembly has been streamlined and simplified. The M5 can be set up in three steps -- about 15 minutes total. It takes the stress out of setup and operation with features like 7x7 auto-leveling, PEI soft magnetic printing bed, printing notifications, and the ability to automatically resume if the print is interrupted due to a power outage.

Read more