It's official: technology is taking over. Forget robots, 3D printers are fast establishing themselves as next in line to rule the world. From 3D printed stem cells and music to a house on the moon, there seems to be no limits to what they can achieve.

US scientists in Boston have taken the concept of three dimensional printing into the kitchen. Cornucopia, still in its conceptional stages, is being billed as a "personal food factory" that's able to 'print' and cook food from a wide range of ingredients. What's more, by selecting specifically calculated quantities of any given element to a dish, it alleviates the ever growing problem of food waste.

The brains behind the Digital Fabricator, as it's also known, are Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates Amit Zoran and Marcelo Coelho. The machine stores ingredients within refrigerated canisters before combining them in a mixing chamber according to specific recipes. The combined ingredients are then formed into layers which are either cooked or cooled, depending how they fit within the dish, and your meal is ready to eat.

As well as providing a kind of space-age convenience akin to something out of Star Trek, the scientists behind Cornucopia claim their concept will allow for novel gastronomic experiences. They claim the printing process can produce entirely new textures and flavours that cannot be obtained through traditional cooking methods, and, using the device's touchscreen interface, users will be able to control and customise their nutritional value of their meals, changing parameters such as fat or cholesterol content to suit their personal requirements.

Whilst this may have more chance of becoming a reality than said microwave, it's not the first example of 3D printed food, and it's hard to imagine what machines will be capable of in a few decades.