Hasta La Gadget!

In the future, we may not need to go to museums and other repositories of art in order to admire paintings and sculptures. We may be able to print inch-perfect replicas of artworks that, to the untrained eyes, look exactly the same as the original. Engineer Tim Zaman showed that it’s possible to make high quality and full color scans of paintings using off the shelf devices. But for now, it takes a rare and proprietary 3D printer to turn those scans into accurate replicas.

For his master thesis at the Delft University of Technology, Tim built a custom 3D scanner composed of two Nikon D800E cameras with 80mm PC-E lenses and a polarization filter and a picoprojector that also has a polarization filter. Tim said his rig enabled him to combine two 3D scanning techniques – stereoscopic scanning and fringe projection – allowing for scans with a resolution of 50 micrometers (μm) and a depth precision of 9.2 μm. Skip to around 1:52 in the video below to see Tim talk to the BBC about his project:

In his reply to a commenter on YouTube, Tim said that it takes him one day to scan a 1 sq.m. (approx. 11 sq.ft.) surface. Printing the resulting file can take up to a day as well. Not that you’d be able to do so with just any 3D printer. The miraculous machine in the video below and the 3D printing process it uses were developed by Océ, a printing company owned by Canon. The painting that was replicated here is Rembrandt’s The Jewish Bride.

That is one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in my life. No doubt visual artists and art critics will have to come to terms with the off-putting consequences of this technology. What is the value of a painting if it can have infinite perfect replicas? Should one’s appreciation of a painting or sculpture be informed by the knowledge of its authenticity if you can’t tell the difference between an original work and its replica? But as Tim stated in his thesis, the fruits of his labor can also be applied to study, conserve and restore works of art. Head to Tim’s website or YouTube channel if you want to find out more about his research.

[via Tim Zaman, Delft University of Technology & Océ via Walyou]

At first glance this looks like a giant tank that must be the work of the military industrial complex. Well, it is a camera on some tank treads, but it isn’t tank-sized. It is a one-of-a-kind object called the Soviet Rumble PHU x Z*E*R*O.

It is basically a retro camera with a companion dock. The camera is fully functional Russian FED-5 35mm, and can be undocked to snap photos. As art goes, this is a pretty clever project. It is completely handmade from recycled objects. It makes me wish we had real tanks that looked like this.

It’s selling for $395(USD) over at the Four Corner Store.

[via Damn Geeky]

Every time I went to my grandmother’s house growing up she was always working on a quilt of one sort or another. She offered to make me quilts multiple times but I didn’t care anything for handmade blankets back in the day. If she were still around, I would be calling her right now to make me one of these Jean-Luc Picard quilts.

Apparently, the owner of a quilt making outfit called Candy Coated Quilts and made his particular blankie using two-inch squares of cloth. How exactly she was able to make this pixelated looking photo of Picard with the squares is beyond my pay grade, but it’s awesome.

The quilt was made for a queen-size bed and required 4,500 fabric squares to complete it. It’s even got the Captain’s Starfleet uniform on the backside. Its creator made it as a wedding gift for a couple of friends who happen to be Trekkies. This is easily the best wedding gift ever.

[Candy Coated Quilts via Nerd Approved]

You might have heard of NeverWet when it was first launched. It’s basically a waterproofing spray that repels liquids so you can keep your stuff dry.

That’s the spray’s intended use, but Home Depot community members Nathan Sharratt and Dana0814 came up with an extremely creative way to use it.

Armed with stencils and a couple of cans of NeverWet, they set out to create street art while taking full advantage of the spray’s hydrophobic qualities. Their art only appears when it rains, because it’s the only part of the street that stays dry during a downpour.

[via TAXI]

The Endless Stair makes it seem like you’re stepping into an Escher painting: it never ends. The temporary sculpture was a project of dRMM Architects, where they basically combined fifteen interlocking stairways to create the 25-foot-tall sculpture.

If you’re still thinking M. C. Escher, then you’re right on target, because the piece was inspired by the well-known Dutch artist.

dRMM’s Alex de Rijke explains: “Escher’s inspiration was something that drove us to make a staircase that was not possible necessarily to understand as a simple linear composition. It’s something that was complex, that was interlocking, and perhaps spatially impossible.”

He adds: “On stairs, people interact, they pass each other, they are always interesting places with spatial and social potential. We thought a staircase would be a good vehicle for exploring structure, space, and making a sculpture. Stairs are sculpture’s gift to architecture.”

The Endless Stair is currently on display in front of London’s Tate Modern, where visitors can walk up and down it’s intertwined steps daily from 9 in the morning until dusk.

[via C|NET]