Hasta La Gadget!

A patent filed by Apple Inc. shows a new method to print 3D models using triangular tessellation. The patent office approved the method, which breaks smooth surfaces into little triangles that approximate the shape of the original model, on October 23, 2018.

The unique aspect of the patent involves the infill and surface. The infill are little patterns inside an object that help it retain rigidity. Most infill is usually fairly simple and involves drawing shapes or squiggles inside an object in a uniform way to keep the shape from collapsing. This means that the entire inside of the object is uniform, leading to cracking or brittleness in the finished product. Apple’s solution would change the shape of the internal infill to differently-sized triangles, depending on the print, ensuring that there is more infill on the edges of the object. The same system is used on the surface of the print to approximate smooth surfaces.

Apple listed Michael R. Sweet, Senior Printing System Engineer at Apple Inc., Canada, as the sole inventor. Sweet has patented at least 13 other 3D printing inventions according to 3D Printing Industry.

“In one embodiment, the triangles making up the triangular tessellations are fixed-size triangles. In another embodiment, the triangles making up the triangular tessellations are dynamically sized triangles. By way of example, small triangles could be used to form an object’s edges or other regions in which strength/support is needed. Larger triangles could be used to build-up or construct areas where strength/support is not as critical,” wrote Sweet in the patent. The patent notes that this system can speed up printing considerably as the print head does not have to move back and forth and instead only moves forward to make the triangular shapes. As an example, Sweet points out that circular infill, as shown below, is inefficient.

This obviously doesn’t meet Apple is making a 3D printer. It simply means that a printing researcher at Apple is looking into the problem and has created a slightly more efficient method for designing 3D printed parts.

Your photos and videos are likely to be some of the most precious files you have on your smartphone. Even if you’ve got new photos and videos taken with the camera synced to the cloud though, what about the pictures your family send you over WhatsApp? Or the Instagram Stories you post? Here’s how to make sure every…

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Major tech companies were playing their part in helping people register to vote ahead of the coming elections in the United States. Snap, the maker of Snapchat, also utilized its platform that’s popular with young adults to nudge them in the direction of voter registration. While these efforts may not seem much at first, there are numbers to back them up. Snap has revealed that it has helped 418,000 people register to vote in the United States.

The company told The New York Times that its campaign on Snapchat enabled 418,000 people to register to vote in just two weeks. Most of the registrations came from people in states that are hotly contested such as Ohio, Florida, Texas, and Georgia.

The full effect of this will only be felt once these people actually go out and vote. Snapchat only got them to register to vote. It’s still the responsibility of citizens to do their civic duty and cast their ballot when the day comes. It can obviously not be said for sure just how many of these 418,000 newly registered voters will actually be going out to vote.

Similar efforts have been made by bigger platforms such as Instagram as well. Its numbers are not known but it can reasonably be assumed that these companies have aided a lot of people in getting done with their voter registrations.

Snapchat’s Voter Registration Efforts Added 418,000 Voters , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Sony’s robot dogs have always been popular. The company has a new Aibo that is already out in Japan, so if you are interested in buying one, you might want to know what makes them tick. If so, here’s a gruesome teardown of an Aibo ERS-1000, courtesy of Japanese website Robot Start.

As you can see, this is a pretty complex pup, loaded with circuit boards, servo motors, and sensors. It is even equipped with 4G LTE and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi that connect to Sony’s servers for deep learning, and can download new behaviors automatically if you have a subscription.

Behind those cute robot puppy dog eyes you’ll find some square full color OLED screens. A pressure-sensitive capacitive touch sensor wraps around to the top of the head, as well as under its chin so it can react to your petting. The robomutt also has a fish-eye camera in its snout that can identify faces and help it navigate.

It’s pretty amazing seeing all that goes into these dogs, and we can only speculate that five years from now they could be a lot more lifelike with even more features. Be sure to head over to Robot Start to see the brutal step-by-step teardown.

Check out the video below to see the 2018 Aibo ERS-1000 meeting its granddad, the first generation Aibo ERS-111 from 1999:

[via Hackaday]

Zero Motorcycles has been making electric motorcycles for a long time now and the company has announced its 2019 line. The new lineup has more powerful base models, new tech features, new style, and an extended driving range. Zero says that for 2019, it has focused on its dual sport line of bikes. The entry point is the Zero DS … Continue reading