Hasta La Gadget!

With UPS’ incoming 3D printing service and the growing availability of consumer-ready kits, printing objects is easier than ever, assuming you actually have something ready to print. If not, don’t fret –MakerBot is on the case, announcing today that its upcoming Digitizer will be available for sale next week. The company hasn’t yet put a price on 3D scanning, but the device (seen above) is quite a bit cleaner than the prototype MakerBot trotted out at South by Southwest. “It’s the easiest, fastest way for anyone to create 3D models,” boasts the product’s announcement email (seen after the break). “We optimized the whole process to work perfectly with MakerBot’s Replicator Desktop 3D printers.”

Scanned objects can be resized, edited and uploaded to Thingiverse, and will be saved as a standard 3D design file compatible with third-party modeling programs. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some crew members to replicate.

Filed under: Misc

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You might say that, in addition to the whole 3D printing thing, 3D Systems is in the acquisition game. The company’s spent much of the past few years snapping up smaller brands like there’s no tomorrow. And while a number of those buys have tended to fall a bit out of our purview, this latest is particularly interesting. The company announced this morning that it has picked up TeamPlatform, kind of the Google Docs of the 3D modeling world. The software offers up collaborative access to cloud-based tools for design, engineering and management companies. No word on how exactly the company will be absorbed, but 3D Systems noted plans to integrate it into Geomagic and Cubify, bringing the offering to pro and consumer users, respectively.

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Today, The UPS Store announced its plan to bring 3D printing services to the masses. The shipping company will soon roll out Stratasys Uprint SE Plus printers to 6 locations in San Diego to test out the new service; it’ll be aimed at small businesses, start-ups and retail customers in need of a professional grade model to produce things like prototypes and artistic renderings. At $20,900 a pop, Stratasys printers aren’t exactly the kind of gadget you’d purchase for home use, so their availability at UPS stores is a pretty major step towards making high quality 3D printing an accessible option for the common man. Though the company is starting small, it hopes to expand the service nationwide, provided that the San Diego experiment proves successful. For more info, check out the video after the break.

Filed under: Misc, Peripherals

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Via: GigaOM

Source: UPS

There are some things in this world we’re not sure are improved by the 3D printing process, like firearms and food. Aircraft might also be on that list, but no amount of dubiousness will stand in the way of MakerPlane’s open source plane. The aviation company’s ambitious Indiegogo campaign went live last week (check out the video below), but its quest for funding looks like it’s going to be a major uphill climb. At the time of this writing, the campaign had yet to breach the $800 mark, a far cry from its $75,000 goal. While part of the reason for the slow funding can be chalked up to a certain level of skepticism when it comes to a plane made with 3D printed parts and open sourced avionics software, the lack of plane-related rewards might also be holding the company back from reaching its endgame. For example, a $10,000 pledge will only get your corporate logo on the display craft’s fuselage. That being said, somebody’s got to dream big. Just don’t ask us to get in your homemade plane.

Filed under: Transportation

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Via: Wired

Source: Indiegogo, MakerPlane

If you’re hoping to get some more tactile feedback out of augmented reality environments, the folks at Disney Research have devised the AIREAL system that could end up doing just that. The team is showing off the project at SIGGRAPH’s Emerging Technologies space, so we made sure to stop by for a look and feel. As quick refresher, the technology reacts to the user’s gestures by churning out a vortex of air to provide tactile feedback in real space — thanks to an almost entirely 3D printed enclosure and a smattering of actuators and depth senors. In the demo we saw, hovering our hand just over a display summoned a butterfly.

Once it landed, that small bit of air offered up the physical sensation that it was actually touching us. As we moved closer to a virtual open window, wings went a flutter and the whole sensation increased a bit. Sure, what we saw was a fairly simple use scenario, but there are aspirations for this to enhance gaming experiences and other augmented environments (likely within the confines of a Disney park, of course) with the addition of haptic feedback. Looking for a bit more info? Consult the video after the break for just that.

Filed under: Misc

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