Hasta La Gadget!

As we enter mid-August, millions of people will load up the car and head out to the beach for summer vacation. But no matter how much energy you put into building a sandcastle, it’s unlikely to be as impressive as the structures produced by Stone Spray, a solar-powered, robotic 3D printer that can create entire buildings out of sand. It’s hard to deny that 3D printing has the ability to change the world — especially after learning about a two-year-old girl who gained the use of her arms with the aid of a 3D-printed robotic exoskeleton (she calls them her “magic arms”).

Continue reading Inhabitat’s Week in Green: Eindhoven’s Evoluon Center, folding compact cars and the best of 3D printing

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Robots, Science

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: Eindhoven’s Evoluon Center, folding compact cars and the best of 3D printing originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Aug 2012 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If ultrasonic baby pictures aren’t enough, how about a resin-cast 3D model of your live fetus floating in clear lucite? An Ebisu health clinic, Hiro-o Ladies, is working with a 3D printer called Fasotec to create Tenshi no Katachi – Shape Of An Angel – so the entire family can see what that squirt is doing in your womb.

A company representative waxed all things baby love: “We actually got three expectant mothers to try this out. They said it felt great to see how their babies looked before birth, and to be able to actually hold the inside of their own body. They also enjoyed looking at the model after giving birth, thinking, ‘This is how my baby looked inside me’ and recalling how it felt to be pregnant.”

The service costs 100,000 yen (about $1300) and uses a dual-resin extruder to make the baby part and the solidified amniotic part at the same time. You can build the baby in multiple sizes and shapes and you can, using 3D imaging, focus on the whole body or just the face. You can even get little cellphone fobs with your baby floating inside of them. Seriously.

via Daddytypes

Don’t get us wrong, we adore 3D printers and the whole additive manufacturing movement. But, if all you’re going to get out of the ABS-jets are some companion cubes and a raptor claw, well then, we don’t think there’s much hope for the technology. Thankfully there are people out there (much better people than us, we might add), who have turned to 3D printers to actually improve peoples lives. Take, for example, the tale of two-year-old Emma, born with the congenital disorder arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC). The disease causes a person’s joints to become locked in a single position, in Emma’s case, it was her arms. There are prosthetics that can help, but most are made of metal — including the anchor vest — which would make them too heavy for a 25-pound girl.

Instead of going off the shelf, doctors turned to a 3D printer from Stratasys to create custom molded parts and a lightweight vest for Emma. The result: the two-year-old who once could not lift her arms is now able to play, color and feed herself. Printing the parts also solves another major issue — Emma is growing… quickly. The adorable tot has already outgrown her first vest, but her mother just calls the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children and has a new one made. The same goes for replacement parts. Should a hinge or brace break, it need only be a matter of hours (not days or weeks) before a new one is delivered. For more details check out the heartwarming video after the break.

Continue reading 3D printed ‘Magic Arms’ give a little girl use of her limbs

Filed under: Science

3D printed ‘Magic Arms’ give a little girl use of her limbs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 11:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Stone Spray robot was created as a 3D printer to produce architecture out of soil. While technically speaking, this robot wasn’t designed to create art, the results of its efforts and the research project sure look like some interesting sculptural works.

Stone Spray was created by Anna Kulik, Inder Shergill and Petr Novikov as a way to produce eco-friendly, efficient and innovative systems to “print” architecture in 3D. The device collects sand and dirt which is then sprayed from a nozzle with a binding component. This mixture solidifies and creates forms that look like they were sculpted.

The movements of the ‘bot are controlled by a computer, so it can allow designers to have a direct input in the resulting shape, unlike other 3D printers. The spray is multi directional, and can even be sprayed vertically. While the prototype only produces pretty rudimentary small structures, here’s a rendering of the sort of thing a larger version might be able to produce:

While I’m not sure of the practical applications for the Stone Spray robot, it sure produces some unique artistic output. Check it out in action in the video below:

[via designboom]

If the urge to create a robot petting zoo of your own hasn’t subsided since Maker Faire, 3D Systems’ new Cubify toy robots might help fill that void in your droid-loving heart. The 3D-printed bots may not boast electronic innards, but their LEGO-like swappable parts allow for some Frankenstein-inspired customization. Ready-made robots start at $4.99, while 3D source files ring up at 99 cents apiece, in case you’d rather extrude them using your own Cube hardware. Yearning to make a personal automaton army entirely of your own design? The company’s new beginner-friendly CAD tool, Cubify Invent, should help you craft that unique plastic platoon.

Continue reading Cubify’s 3D-printed toy robots take cues from Lego, sport interchangeable parts

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

Cubify’s 3D-printed toy robots take cues from Lego, sport interchangeable parts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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