Hasta La Gadget!

A couple of months ago we saw a 3D printer that prints in full color by breaking a 3D model into very thin slices, printing each slice on separate sheets of paper then cutting the slices out of the paper and gluing them together. Haddock Inventions’ Looking Glass prints are made using a similar process, but the company chooses to keep the slices stuck to the surface they were printed on. The resulting product appears frozen in mid-air.

As with many 3D printed objects, a Looking Glass print starts its life as a 3D file, a model. But instead of being printed layer by layer, the model is printed slice per slice on 0.3mm thick lucite sheets using an inkjet printer. But simply stacking those sheets wouldn’t give you a Looking Glass print. Light will refract as it passes through the air between the sheets and as you stack more slices the image only becomes blurred. To counteract this, Haddock Inventions pump silicon oil to the stack of slices to reduce the refraction.

The main advantage of Looking Glass over 3D printing is that it takes less than an hour to make a print, whereas it would take considerably longer with a 3D printer. Another perk of Looking Glass that 3D printed objects don’t have is the one I mentioned earlier: regardless of the size and height of the object you’re printing, it will remain frozen and fixed. In contrast, certain objects – whether because they’re too large or have a high center of mass – need to be 3D printed as separate parts then assembled afterwards.

You can order a Looking Glass print right now for $100 (USD), but why would you want one? Speaking with Fast Co. Design, Shawn Frayne of Haddock Inventions claims that “Purely visually, I think Looking Glass sort of crushes–it will crush–3-D object printing.” That’s debatable, to say the least.

If they can make it so you can remove and replace slices at will, Looking Glass prints may be helpful to people who need its form factor. Perhaps then it can be used to make really useful things like a 3D CT scan,  a tangible multilevel architectural blueprint, a 3D exploded diagram of the parts of an object and other things that people would want to zoom in and zoom out of. As it is, Looking Glass is an interesting medium of expression and preservation – a hybrid of a picture and a figurine.

[via Looking Glass Factory via Fast Co. Design]

Tinkerers, hackers, makers, geeks – whatever you call them, craftsmen who specialize in electronics and software want to customize their work environment. It manifests in lots of ways: custom-built computers, hardware mods and software hacks. But unless they’re also good at carpentry, they may find it hard to personalize their furniture or workstation. That’s where the Kickstarter project called MultiMod kit comes in.

The kits are based on two simple parts: PVC-coated steel poles and clamp joints. The idea is that you can combine any number of poles and joints to satisfy your needs. Add accessories like countertops, casters and hooks and you can build anything from a small tray to a portable 3D printer stand to a multi-monitor battlestation, as shown in the images above and below. Like LEGO, you can easily dismantle and reuse the parts, which means their usefulness is mainly limited by your needs and imagination.

MultiMod is actually a bundled version of parts that you can buy piece by piece under the name Fitz Kits. Honestly I don’t why Cody Wilmer and his partners took to Kickstarter for MultiMods when they already have Fitz Kits setup. That doesn’t make their invention any less useful though.

Pledge at least $75 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a MultiMod kit. The Battlestation kit in the images above can be yours if you pledge at least $95. You can also have a look at the Fitz Kits shop if you don’t need a lot of poles and joints at once.

LEGO enthusiast Michael Thomas made this awesome LEGO replica of  Adventure Time’s BMO. But wait! BMO is computer! Michael also put a Raspberry Pi inside BMO, as well as a 2.5″ screen. That means he can actually use his BMO to play video games, just like Finn and Jake do with the cartoon BMO.

Michael’s BMO runs on Raspbian, a Debian-based operating system optimized for the Raspberry Pi.  It also has a USB port, a microSD card adapter and a microUSB cable for power.

Here’s a quick video of Michael’s BMO:

Head to Michael’s Flickr page to see the parts list of his mathematical MOC.

[via I Heart Chaos]

Kids love LEGO Minifigs. They also love crayons. Halloween too. Heck, kids love just about everything but brussel sprouts. These Halloween themed LEGO Minifig crayons will keep your little tykes busy coloring in style while you do other important things. Like play with LEGO bricks.

These cute minifigs with crayons inside were created by Etsy artist CynsSensations and are a treat not a trick. You get 24 per order for $20(USD). If you want them personalized, she can do that too. The name will be placed on the bottom of the minifigs’ shirts.

Pretty cool. However, you better hurry if you want some. The last day to order for Halloween delivery is October 18th. I bet you don’t have these in your LEGO collection.

So you’ve got a couple of dead old video game consoles lying around. While you could just throw them in the trash, it’s better for you to recycle them. And what better than to turn your old game systems into Batman’s Tumbler?

That’s exactly what recycling artist Daniel Shankalonian did when he got his hands on a couple of deceased PlayStation 2 systems. He completed his build chopping up the bits and pieces of the consoles, mixing in a liberal dose of printer and hard drive parts, and placing the whole assemblage on a broken down old Dell XPS laptop.

While it’s certainly not as elegant of a job as Lucius Fox did with the original Tumbler, you have to give Shankalonian credit for being able to make lemonade out of the lemons he was dealt. And Lucius had the slight advantage of having millions of dollars from the Wayne Foundation to work with too.

Best of all, you can own this recycled PS2/Batmobile. It’s available over on Etsy for $250(USD). It’s a shame you can’t hook up a DualShock and play Arkham Origins on it.