REMOTE MONITORING AND CONTROL OF A THREE-DIMENSIONAL OBJECT IN A FABRICATION APPARATUS

A three-dimensional object fabrication apparatus. A housing encloses a work area. An interface is provided in the housing permit a processor within the housing to receive digital data defining geometry for a three-dimensional object to be fabricated. A fabrication mechanism forms a portion of the object by addition of material substantially consistent with the digital data for a corresponding portion of the geometry received by the processor. A camera to images a portion of the fabrication process, e.g., molding or assembly. The images are transmitted via an interface over a wide area network to permit a user to monitor the process imaged. A user interface is provided to permit the user to send commands to the fabrication apparatus from various devices that access the wide area network.