So, while this isn’t exactly 3D printing, it’s close. Shapeways has an interview with Bjorn Hogberg, who is doing research on actually building things out of DNA. This reminds me of Neil Gershenfeld's TED Talk. The best quote from the talk:
The killer app of personal fabrication are products for a market of one person.
This is certainly a key insight. The beauty of this new wave in fabrication is the ability to make something exactly as you’d like it to be.
I saw this via the Make blog and had to share it with you:
Scott Campbell, a famous tattoo artist, has some art up in a gallery made entirely out of laser-cut stacks of dollar bills. Pretty awesome! There are more pictures on the Divine Caroline blog.
There’s an interesting trend in 3D printing lately: using the technology to bring virtual worlds to life.
Most people who play online MMORPGS spend quite a bit of time with their in-game avatar. Since most of these games are in the third person, you end up looking over your little Tauren for hours upon hours, so it’s natural that you’d grow a bit attached. Well, a few companies want to bring your ‘epic lewt’ into the real world (click to visit site):
FigurePrints (World of Warcraft):
Fabjectory (Second Life and Nintendo Mii):
Spore Sculptor:
These are pretty neat. They all use Z Corp printers, which lets them do nicely detailed models in full color. They’re reasonable in price, from between $30-$150.
While World of Warcraft is more popular as a game, the Spore and SecondLife creators are interesting because, in Warcraft, players just collect gear that the game gives them, but with the other two, players are actually using tools to create their character entirely within the game. When the Spore Creature Creator was released prior to the game itself as a $10 download, thousands of people purchased it, made creatures, and posted videos on YouTube. People like to make things, and new technologies help bring their creations to life in ways that used to be impossible.
This video from Jay Leno’s Garage shows the amazing power of 3D scanning and printing equipment. Take a valve from a 1907 steam car, scan it in using the NextEngine and then print with a Dimension machine. Both together make a “Xerox” for parts.
Leno talks about how so many cars sit idle for want of just one discontinued part. Even if they do get remade, it’s often to some sub-par shop in China. That’s not who you want making your one-off must-have-to-run parts. Auto restoration & racing shops need access to this equipment, however most have never heard of it or don’t know that it can be had for a reasonable price. Just wait…
Not that I’m going to put down my soldering iron anytime soon, but hacking with plugs (as opposed to molten lead) is a little more inviting for many of us. Not to mention a lot quicker, forgiving and often robust. I’ve been noticing more cool products that allow even the amateur to unleash the hackor within - isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?
We all know the Arduino & it’s lineage as being a great platform to start hardware hacking. One of the great parts of the Duemilanove et al is the group of shields that are available to plug into the thing to instantly give you what you need. Want to connect your kit to the net? Try the Lady Ada’s ethernet board. Perfer to turn the Arduino into a treaded tank of terror… Try the TankShield. You know you want to watch the video.
Liquidware's TankShield
A new product was recently released that adds even more functionality to the Arduino, or conceivably any electronics devices. It’s called the Tinkerkit. It’s a set of 20 sensors, 10 accuators, and even an Arduino shield, that allow you to plug and play to turn your concept into an up and running prototype. Very cool. It hasn’t been released yet, but you’ll be hearing more of them.
Tinkerkit Pieces
Another great company in this space is the widely known BugLabs. If you don’t know about these guys, they make a central computer about the size of an iPod called the BUGbase. Then they have BUGmodules that plug into the 4 ports (2 on each side) that give the device input and output. Each module has certain functionality, like the BUGmotion that senses motion using a passive IR sensor and an accelerometer. With this plug the BUGcam, could make camera that takes a picture of anything that crosses its path. This is already currently available and getting traction.
BUGbase + BUGs
Another cool project works with an array a little computers with screens that can link together to form ad hoc networks between each other. They’re called Siftables, and they seem to open up a lot of cool possibilities. Check out this video on TED to get a better idea of what they’re capable of. The tech isn’t a product yet, but they’re working on it. I’m not sure if it will be open source or not, but I heard they’re filing patents.
GizmoForYou.com came on the scene this month, and they’re trying to bring mass customization of electronics gadgets to the masses. The idea is to first let users post ideas for a new gadget on the website. Then they’ll setup a poll to see how many other users would buy it. After getting bombarded with requested, they decided today that there will be a prioritized queuing system that will determine which ideas get made and when.
The higher priority is given to devices that are already known to sell well - mostly their own designs as of now. The second highest priority goes to items that can be fulfilled in the short term in order of user demand and easy of manufacture. The lowest priority is given to the projects that will require long term time frames to develop. Once the item has been designed the plans and documentation are posted on the site for free in complex open source style. Also, the item will be available in full form in their store.
It looks like they’re making their money off of the devices, not their development time. I’m not sure how profitable this model is, but I guess it’s not that different than the thriving Arduino development community. However, I can’t help but wonder what will happen when the guys from Half Bakery stumble upon this site and start demanding things.
They currently have released their first device the iSeeYou - which you can see the review of here. We can’t wait to see what more they come up with. Stay tuned.
“Dr. John Lanzalotti, a plastic surgeon and sculptor /owner of Williamsburg Sculpture, located in Williamsburg, Va., sculpts lifelike busts of the nation’s founding fathers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and Robert E. Lee, among others…”
“With the help of Direct Dimensions and rapid prototyping companies, Dr. Lanzalotti has been able to create precise replicas of his sculptures in different scales. Rapid prototyping 3D printing is used to create copies of smaller-scale 3D models. Patterns of cold-cast marble reproductions can be made of these smaller replicas, which are popular as collectibles in gift shops. Larger-scale busts can also be made from the 3D digital models in milled marble, cast bronze, and etched crystal.”
“According to Michael Raphael of Direct Dimensions, the busts were primarily laser scanned with an 8-ft., 7-axis Platinum FaroArm with either a Faro, Kreon, or Perceptron laser line scanner. PolyWorks, Rapidform, and Geomagic software are used to convert the digital scan “point cloud” data into clean, watertight STL files.”
There was a mini-symposium at Carnegie Mellon University this week called: Code Form Space. The idea is to show how art and technology can merge to create some amazing effects that are truly novel. The two speakers, C.E.B. Reas (co-creator of Processing) and Marius Watz were on hand to give us the story and the methods behind their work.
They use familiar tools: software, lasers, mills, the usual. However, this art distills the essence of their thought, via code, into something quite novel. Reas, for instance, built some software that uses bots using a few sets of simple rules to move in random patterns across the screen. Their interactions with each other work together to “paint” the picture based on the paths each bot takes. The picture above is an example of this type of work - here are some more.
Marius Watz
Marius has created a really interesting environment to create art called ElectroPlasique that he used to build the above piece. It’s made entirely by a 2D laser cutter, but even in person you’d swear it has 3D topology. It really has some room presence. Check out the video to see how it works.
This set of events was a great experience, and the fun doesn’t end there. They’re also putting on the Art + Code series running from March 7th-9th. We’ll be there to give you guys the scoop.
