This is definitely one of the most innovative moves by a manufacturer to apply existing technology to solve a significant pain point for them and for Designers/Architects who constantly need access to samples.
Unbeknown to most, building product manufacturers loose hundreds of thousands of dollars (perhaps milions) a year in samples which require resources to produce and ship. These samples are sadly cast out of Designer/Architects libraries for lack of space and unfortunately end up in landfill. The challenge is always that specifiers(architects/designers) often want the tactile experience of the products they consider using on projects. But, once they have touched it, it will probably be filed away and not used again because of chaotic filing, or it was not considered for future use(the designer didn't like it).
Using high quality scanning and printing to deliver life like samples to Designers is a great leap forward. An even better one would be to post the images online to save shipping costs, but I digress.
