We see a lot of cool things in the 3D printing world, but this is definitely a first. A software engineer 3D-printed a duck foot that allowed one disabled duck to begin walking properly after the little creature suffered from a backward foot that made getting around painful and difficult. The duck was born with
Buttercup the duck was born with his left foot turned backwards, making it nearly impossible and extremely painful to walk. But now he’s waddling again with a 3D-printed foot.
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A 3D-printed cast concept, more flexible and wearer-friendly than traditional plaster cast for break and fracture patients, is the latest potential application of advanced materials manipulation. The design, dubbed the Cortex Exoskeleton, is the handiwork of Jake Evill, and could potentially deliver more structured support for broken limbs while also being lighter, stronger, and more
Plaster casts are bulky, obnoxious, heavy, inevitably sweaty, occasionally pink. In short, they are no fun. But this 3D-printed "Cortex" cast could change all that. Sure, it looks a little like a fishnet stocking, but have you seen a old-fashioned cast lately?
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We’ve already seen some innovative ways to make action figures via 3D printing. But ModiBot might be the best and most practical 3D printed action figure yet. Instead of letting you design and print an action figure from scratch or order a 3D printed action figure of an existing character, ModiBot meets you halfway. Its a skeletal action figure with swappable parts and accessories.
The base ModiBot action figure is a stick figure with lots of slots and holes. The idea is to get a bare ModiBot and then mix and match it with 3D printed parts and accessories. Because all of this is stored in digital files waiting to be printed, it’s practically impossible for them to be sold out. Dynamo Development Labs, the company behind ModiBot, won’t have to deal with unsold stock either; they just have to print on demand. This means that it should be easy to replace any missing or broken parts. If you know how to make a 3D model, you can design the parts and accessories yourself. So you’re going to go from this:
To this:
And that’s just the beginning. Again, it’s not just the accessories that are interchangeable; the skeleton’s parts itself can be swapped. For example, there’s a dinosaur ModiBot skeleton, so you can assemble a half-man, half-dino ModiBot.
Pledge at least $15 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a ModiBot kit. When 3D printers become widely available and 3D modeling software becomes dead simple to use, ModiBot will be immortal. People will be making parts on their own and lots of third-party vendors will sell their own ModiBot-compatible goods.
You know what ModiBot is like? LEGO. If you think about it, LEGO’s minifigs are strangely unlike the rest of its toys: minifigs are barely customizable or interchangeable. ModiBot is more LEGO-like than LEGO’s own action figures. So I wouldn’t be surprised if LEGO imitates or buys out ModiBot in the future. I am also surprised that ModiBot hasn’t teamed up with Rob Schrab yet.
[via 3ders]
In what looks to be a first for the technology, designer and engineer Todd Blatt took 30 pictures of a bust of Marcus Aurelius with Google Glass and created a downloadable 3D model that you can grab and print.
Blatt writes:
Obviously Blatt had some prior experience with the gear and the tools required to build a 3D model but it’s fascinating that, in a few minutes, he was able to render a physical object digitally and then reprint it. These methods aren’t foolproof, but they’re very nearly so.
What does this mean for the future? Well, almost anything can be copied now, from a car to a tourist’s trinket. It also means that nothing is “safe” anymore – all it takes for IP theft of object designs to happen is a few winks with a good enough camera. Look for this to also affect the uptake of glass in the corporate world. If I were a designer I definitely wouldn’t want some weirdo coming in and snapping my objects with Glass.
You can also buy a copy of the bust here, which should give museums pause if they’re worried about losing gift shop business.
Microsoft is doing its bit to help push forward the 3D printing revolution, by adding in native 3D printer support in Windows 8.1. A new API will let developers on its platform put 3D printing capabilities right into their apps, so that you’ll be able to print that elegant ashtray you’re modelling right on the spot. The API will help consumers using devices including those from Makerbot and Form Labs create their own stuff even more easily at home.
This is great news for the prospects of 3D printing becoming a mainstream thing, instead of just an enthusiast’s hobby. And Microsoft is clearly interested in attracting developers who are interested in 3D printing to the Windows software ecosystem. Whether that’s just a way for it to look ‘hip, cool and cutting edge,’ or a genuine big bet on the future of the tech remains to be seen, but at least it’s there to be taken advantage of.
Microsoft support along with the merger of Makerbot with Stratasys means there’s a lot of energy going into mainstreaming home 3D printing tech right now, from some of the largest players in the space. That doesn’t mean we’ll all be printing our own phones at home in two years’ time, but it does mean we’ll probably see a lot more investment focused on this area in the near future.
Microsoft’s Antoine Leblond called printing 3D “just as easy and seamless as printing in 2D” on stage today at Build, and demoed the process of printing a vase from a Windows 8.1 device to the MakerBot Replicator 2. The Replicator 2 will be available in Microsoft Stores soon, too, according to Leblond.
Prying the lids off tiny shipping crates, opening incredibly small rusted doors, fending off hordes of action figure-sized zombies: the uses for this keychain-sized crowbar are endless. And for around $15 you can add it to your pocket toolbox and never find yourself struggling to pry open a tiny coffin again.
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Microsoft is adding native support for 3D printers to Windows 8.1. That means you don’t have to jump through any hoops to 3D print an item—if your computer is hooked up to a 3D printer, you can just hit print.
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