There’s no doubt that 3D printing is going to play a huge part in the future of manufacturing, especially now that researchers at Cornell University have managed to print every component of a fully functional speaker—including the cone, the wiring, and even the magnet.
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Over at 3D printing marketplace Shapeways.com
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This solid-looking structure appears to be made out of plastic—or some equally sturdy polymer. But get a little closer, and you’ll find it’s made of… salt?
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Surgeons and technicians based at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia have produced a 3D-printed skull. But this isn’t just a mono-textured model. Every layer — from the skin to the skull to the various soft tissues of the brain and even the blood vessels — are reproduced from scans of specific human […]
Brain surgery is intricate, high-stakes work. So mastering it on a real, live patient, with an attending physician breathing down your neck and watching your every move, certainly can’t be easy. Enter the 3D printing industry, which has already played a major role in medicine, from churning out noses and eyeballs and blood vessels
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We’ve seen a variety of 3D printers designed to make food, but most of them either make only one kind of food or are designed for professional use, like serving astronauts in space. A company called Natural Machines is working on a food printer that will be easy enough for ordinary people to use and will be able to make a variety of dishes.
BBC reports that Natural Machines’ Foodini printer can combine up to six ingredients. Couple that with the ability to swap cartridges and you get a printer that can make a variety of food. But don’t expect the Foodini to be a do-it-all cook. As BBC notes, it can only combine ingredients and not actually cook them. Plus it can only make food using paste-like ingredients.
The Foodini may not make stoves, grills and ovens obsolete, but it could make it easier to prepare complex dishes. The thought of downloading recipes online also makes it easier to try new meals or prepare difficult ones that you may not have the time or skill to do on your own. Natural Machines chief executive Emilio Sepulveda estimates that the Foodini will cost around $1,400 (USD), although they didn’t say when they will release the printer.
Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside has confirmed that a Project Ara prototype is nearing completion. Project Ara is a collaboration between Motorola and 3D Systems to produce “Phonebloks” — modular smartphones whose components can be replaced like Legos. The confirmation occurred yesterday in a Google+ Hangout. Project Ara harnesses the technical expertise of Motorola and the […]
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is about so much more than lingerie.
Over the years the annual event, which took place in Manhattan in mid-November and airs December 10, has grown into a mega-beast of elaborate outfits, wings, glitter, and musical performances. Of course, all the images of this year’s show have leaked. One that caught our eye was of a delicate, snowflake-inspired, 3D-printed bustier.
I caught up with Bradley Rothenberg, the architect commissioned to design the look, to hear about 3D printing for the human body. Rothenberg works out of a spare studio in SoHo; his team numbers one to three depending on the day. While the snowflake outfit was out on a tour of Victoria’s Secret stores, there were still a few samples of the fabric kicking around his three-person studio in SoHo.
“If you 3D-print weaves, you can create a moving textile,” says Rothenberg. “The main part of our research into 3D printing is in making these textiles and making something that functions along the body.”
The design is an interlocking snowflake fractal printed in white nylon 1 millimeter thick. It’s flexible and stronger than you might expect.
The printing was done by Shapeways, which Victoria’s Secret had originally approached about doing a 3D printed piece for the snowflake-themed segment of the show. Shapeways’ designer evangelist Duann Scott saw Rothenberg give a talk on fractals and reached out the next day to see if he wanted to get on board with the project.
That was back in May, and Rothenberg spent the next six months taking notes from VS and iterating on the code for the design. The end result was a lace-like bodice comprising an interlocking weave of snowflakes with thicker structures forming the shoulders and bustle. In order to get the piece to fit properly, they took a 3D scan of model Lindsay Ellingson’s body.
“The biggest challenge I think was the resolution at which you can print and the size at which you can print,” Rothenberg said. “If we could do it even half the size, the complexity would increase infinitely more.”
The team also created a pair of black wings, two musical staves held together by notes formed the wings, fanning out behind the model like ribbons. That look took about a tenth of the time of the snowflake project, Rothenberg said.
Because it is a costume more than anything else, the snowflake look has a theatrically large weave. Rothenberg’s mind is on 3D printing materials that can perform like true fabrics, though. Long term there’s voxel printing on a molecular level to create fabrics that have different consistencies throughout, he said. Short term, it’s more about creating a weave.
Putting a 3D printed look on the runway was a great PR move on Victoria’s Secret’s part, of course. But it speaks to how 3D printing could be used in fashion down the line. Rothenberg said that he doesn’t see himself as a fashion designer: he studied architecture at Pratt and considers clothing an extension of that discipline. When it comes to apparel it’s the technology that catches his interest.
“We’re more on the tech side of things. We’re doing a line of 3D printed bags, more to show what the technology can do,” he said.
He’s not alone, with designers like Francis Bitonti working on the same equation. Bitonti, one of the creators of a 3D-printed gown for Dita Von Teese, led a computational fashion workshop at Pratt this summer that had students working digitally and with 3D printing to create dresses.
Rothenberg said that he’s hoping to collaborate with major fashion houses to show designers, who still cut and drape fabric, the possibilities of this technology.
“I think that 3D printing has a big possibility to change the industry as a whole,” he said. “Specifically what we want to do is make wearable 3D-printed stuff available to fashion designers.”
[Images from Bradley Rothenberg]
Earlier this year we learned about Twinkind, a 3D printing shop that makes personalized figurines. Its products are highly detailed, but it has two drawbacks: the figurines are expensive and you have to go to Germany to be scanned. A similar service called Shapify.me has none of those drawbacks, although it requires you to have a Kinect.
Before Shapify.me can make your figurine, you have to scan yourself using a Kinect and a Mac or a PC running Shapify’s software. Assuming you can hold your pose, the process will only take a few minutes, after which the software will generate your 3D model. You can of course re-do the scan if you like.
If you’re satisfied, send your model online through the software and fill-up a form on Shapify.me’s website to place your order. The company will then print a 1/20th scale figurine and deliver it to you for a flat fee of $59 (USD). You can also specify if you want a monochrome or a full-color figurine.
Based on the images, it seems like Shapify.me’s figurines are not as detailed as the ones made by Twinkind or other shops with dedicated 3D scanners. On the other hand, these are way cheaper (well, if you already have a Kinect!) and more convenient. As of this writing Shapify.me caters to residents of the US, Canada and Europe. Check out Shapify.me’s website to learn more.
You’re a high school science teacher and your class is learning about dinosaurs. You can’t exactly run to the local dino bone barn and buy some bargain bones for them to see first-hand. But what if you had access to a 3D printer? Enter the American Museum of Natural History’s education department, which is experimenting with scanning and printing bones.
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