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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Take one look at the upcoming 3D stop motion film ParaNorman and it’s easy to see that moviegoers are in for some stunning visuals come August 17th. Once you realize the contribution of 3D printing to the film’s creation, however, you’re likely to appreciate the movie on an entirely new level. In order to portray a wide array of emotions on the faces of the film’s 62 characters, animation studio LAIKA tapped 3D Systems and their ZPrinter 650 to generate over 31,000 individual facial parts for inclusion in the production — talk about working overtime. According to Brian McLean of LAIKA, “By using a color 3D printer we were not only able to push facial performance to new levels, but we were also able to achieve a level of detail and subtlety in characters’ faces that a few short years ago would have seemed impossible.” If you’ve yet to catch a preview of ParaNorman, just hop the break to see some of the printed handiwork.

Continue reading Stop motion animated film ParaNorman taps 3D printers to create 31,000 unique facial features

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Home Entertainment, Meta

Stop motion animated film ParaNorman taps 3D printers to create 31,000 unique facial features originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 23:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s something universally appealing about the concept of a 3D printer — that concept being an automated system capable of turning computer code into real-world objects. I found myself forced to give a brief overview of the technology to AOL employees in our shared New York City office space after a particularly noisy initial run of MakerBot’s Replicator. Reactions to such explanations tend to follow a fairly standard arc, beginning with wide-eyed wonder as one attempts to wrap their brain around the idea, followed almost immediately by a list of things they’d love to print out, given a chance. This is usually coupled with questions like “can it print food?” and “can I print a car?” Both of which speak to that larger, vitally important question: “can I print anything useful?” This, in turn, speaks to another important concern: “how long until it pays for itself?”

When we received an unexpected package from the folks at MakerBot last Friday, we realized it would afford us the opportunity to field some of these questions. Though, before opening the thing, we can tell you pretty confidently that, if you’re looking for something that will “pay for itself,” that answer won’t come in a giant cardboard box with a MakerBot logo on the side. Some key questions are a little less straightforward, however, like whether or not this technology is ready for consumers — or if it’s still just the territory of enthusiasts.

Continue reading MakerBot Replicator impressions: the dawning of 3D printers in every home?

Filed under: Peripherals, Robots

MakerBot Replicator impressions: the dawning of 3D printers in every home? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you thought mixtapes died with the MP3 era, you’re wrong. Sure, they’ve become niche, and it’s perhaps cloyingly retro to break out your Walkman, but it’s hard to deny the appeal. There are already USB drives and DAPs made to look like an old-school magnetic cassette, but if you want something a little more DIY, MakerBot has a kit that you purchase and assemble your own MP3-playing “tape.” For $25 you get a package with all the essential internals plus plans for your Replicator to print out the snap together casing. If you’re not lucky enough to have a Replicator of your own, you can upload tracks and have the company print one out for you for $40. Hit up the source link to order one now but, before you go, check out the PR and the video after the break.

Continue reading MakerBot brings back the ‘Mixtape’ as a printable MP3 player (video)

MakerBot brings back the ‘Mixtape’ as a printable MP3 player (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 19:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Printing a chocolate heart is easy enough, but how about an actual organ? There are folks working on it, but it turns out those veins of yours aren’t exactly a breeze to replicate. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and MIT may have found a semi-sweet solution — dissolving a sugar lattice in a batch of living Jell-O. The research team uses a RepRap 3D printer and a custom extruder head to print a filament network composed of sucrose, glucose and dextran which is later encased in a bio-gel containing living cells. Once the confectionery paths are dissolved, they leave a network of artery-like channels in their void. Tissue living in the gel can then receive oxygen and nutrients through the hollow pipes.

The research has been promising so far, and has increased the number of functional liver cells the team has been able to maintain in artificial tissues. These results suggest the technique could have future research possibilities in developing lab-grown organs. MIT Professor Sangeeta Bhatia, who helped conduct the effort, hopes to push the group’s work further. “More work will be needed to learn how to directly connect these types of vascular networks to natural blood vessels while at the same time investigating fundamental interactions between the liver cells and the patterned vasculature. It’s an exciting future ahead.” Scientists at other labs could also get their mitts on the sweet templates since they’re stable enough to endure shipping. Head past the break for a video of the innard infrastructure.

Continue reading Researchers use 3D printer, sugar, to create a fake artery network for lab-grown tissue

Researchers use 3D printer, sugar, to create a fake artery network for lab-grown tissue originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 04:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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