3D-printing
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3D-printed plane takes to the skies, sounds like a Black & Decker (video)
You know what's pleasing about this plastic drone, aside from the fact it flies? It took just a week to design and build from scratch, thanks to the labor-saving wonders of 3D printing. Each component was formed in ultra-thin layers by a laser beam trained on a bed of raw material -- either plastic, steel or titanium powder depending on the required part. If designers at the University of Southampton wanted to experiment with elliptical wings, they simply printed them out. If they thought a particular brand of WWII nose cone might reduce drag, they pressed Ctrl-P. And if they reckoned they could invent a wingless flying steamroller... Er, too late. Anyway, as the video after the break reveals, there's never been a better time for the work-shy to become aeronautical engineers.
3D printed toy features the runner from Canabalt
It's no Angry Birds toy, but I like the idea of this Runner figurine. It features the little guy from the popular iPhone game that spawned a genre, Canabalt. Not only does the resemblance to the little pixelated guy shine right through, but the figure is actually 3D printed in color, and then UV coated to hold the whole thing together. Pretty cool. Voxelous has it on sale right now for $14 along with a few other indie gaming stars, though supplies are limited. What other indie iPhone games need figures like this? I wouldn't mind having a printout of my favorite Bitizen in Tiny Tower...
Solar Sinter solar-powered 3D printer turns sand into glass, renews our faith in higher education (video)
Where would we be without the world's graduate art projects? In the case of Markus Kayser's Solar Sinter, we might never have seen the day when a solar-powered 3D printer would turn Saharan sand into a perfectly suitable glass bowl. Well, lucky for us (we suppose) we live in a world overflowing with MA students, and awash in their often confusing, sometimes inspiring projects. Solar Sinter, now on display at the Royal College of Art, falls into the latter category, taking the Earth's natural elements, and turning them into functioning pieces of a burgeoning technology. Solar Sinter uses the sun's rays in place of a laser and sand in place of resin, in a process that is perhaps more visually stunning than the results. See for yourself in the video after the break.
Vienna University of Technology builds a 3D printer, 3D prints the key to our hearts
We've all spent a good portion of the past few years imagining what we'll do as soon as we get our hands on our very own 3D printer. Of course, if you're of the particularly crafty, Make Magazine-subscribing sort, you've probably already built a few of your own. For those who don't know a soldering iron from a freshly-burned hole in their hand, however, it's been a matter of waiting for the technology to come down in size and price. A machine designed by professors at the Vienna University of Technology still has a ways to go on the roughly €1,200 (about $1,700) price, but it weigh in at a bit over three pounds, and that's not for your run-of-the-mill extruder -- this breadbox-sized machine uses lasers to harden plastics, allegedly with enough precision to produce medical parts. Looks like picking out the perfect gift for your professor friends in Vienna just got a lot harder.
Shapeways Glazed Ceramics make 3D printed objects you can eat off of
We've seen them spit out fancy glass vases and tiny white strandbeests, and now the 3D thingy makers are pumping out cutesy salt and pepper shakers. Those hyper-glossy white rabbits pictured above are some of the first spawns of Glazed Ceramics, the newly minted food-safe material available from Shapeways. Glazed Ceramics are fired in an oven or kiln like traditional ceramics and are then coated with a lead-free non-toxic gloss -- the result is food-safe, recyclable, and heat resistant up to 1000 degrees Celsius. The new material is now available to Shapeways designers and will be until August 12th, at which point the company will decide whether its worth keeping around. For now you can sate your appetite for 3D printed shiny white dishes by clicking the source link below.
Modder miniaturizes 5.25-inch disk drive, brings microSD support to Atari 400
You aren't looking at a retro microSD card reader, you're looking at an Atari-compatible serial disk drive that just happens to use microSD in lieu of 5.25-inch floppies. In a Zork inspired fit of nostalgia (we've all been there), hardware modder Rossum paired up an Atari connector with a LPC1114 microcontroller, capable of emulating up to eight Atari drives, managed by a custom, auto-booting app. The whole package is neatly packed in to a tiny 3D printed replica of the original Atari 810 disk drive, and is available for sale never -- but don't let that stop you: Rossum's schematics are free for the taking. The word's biggest little Atari drive is just a DIY away. [Thanks, Francesco F.]
Strandbeests birthed from 3D printer pop out ready to walk (video)
While designer Theo Jansen's dreams of a race of independently multiplying Strandbeests is more than just a little bit out there, it seems he has found a way to streamline production of the rather fascinating self-propelled creatures. In language that is unique to Jansen's relationship with the things, he explains the impact of 3D printing on the Strandbeest production process as such: "Strandbeests have found a way to multiply by injecting their digital DNA directly into the Shapeways system." The 3D printed versions of his strolling mechanisms, known as Animaris Geneticus Parvus, are now available in the Shapeways store, and require zero post-printing assembly. Check out the video after the break for more of Jansen's eyebrow-lifting take on reality.
Kinect hack turns tourists into 3D souvenirs (video)
As souvenirs go, a miniature replica of yourself -- striking a pose of your choosing on Barcelona's La Rambla street -- is a far sight more original than a bullfights-and-senoritas snow globe. This past January, the hilariously titled BlablabLAB enlisted three Kinects and a RapMan 3.1 to snap passersby and render them into personalized tchotchkes, in a project called Be Your Own Souvenir. Subjects stood atop a small platform, mimicking the human statues on La Rambla, as the Kinects captured their likeness in full 360-degree glory. The resulting images were then processed as a mesh reconstruction, saved as a G-code file, and then fed through a 3D printer -- and voila, out popped the tiny statuettes. If you're a fan of flashy editing and Kinect-based street experiments, check out the video after the break.
MakerBot's Interface Board Kit does PC-less 3D printing, turns your superhero fantasies into reality
If you're like us -- that is to say, wildly popular and devastatingly good looking -- then you're probably wondering why someone hasn't produced an action figure in your likeness yet. Well wonder no longer, for the folks over at MakerBot just announced yet another handy tool to make at home 3D printing even easier. An addition to the aptly titled Thing-O-Matic, the Gen 4 Interface Board Kit v1.1 is billed as a DIY interface that lets you operate your thingy printer without having to attach it to a PC. The kit comes equipped with an SD card slot for easy independent operation, and because the board's fully hackable, you can use it to control your robots or homebrew CNC devices, too. It sports nine programmable buttons and an LCD screen for feedback, and allows you to set and read temperatures, view build progress, or start a new project stored on the SD card. So what are you waiting for? Your self-aggrandizing bobblehead isn't going to make itself.
EADS's Airbike is a 3D-printed nylon bicycle, actually looks rather decent
We've seen plenty of neat 3D printing products over the last year or so, though none are as impressive as this bicycle in terms of scale. Unveiled by EADS (European Aerospace and Defence Group), the Airbike is "grown" with nylon powder using a process called additive layer manufacturing, which is similar to 3D printing but with the added benefit of laser-sintering to reinforce the structure. This way the parts can save up to 65 percent in weight while retaining the same strength (of steel or aluminum in this case), and apparently Airbus was quick to pick up this technology well before everyone else (hence named Airbike, in its honor). It's all well and good, except EADS does say there's still some way to go before we can print our own custom Harley-Davidson bikes without breaking our banks. Shame -- as with many things in life, we'll just have to wait.
Fabricate Yourself Kinect hack turns you into a 3D puzzle piece
We've been whittling our likeness into bars of soap for decades, but lucky for us someone's come up with a far easier way to render our flawless good looks in miniature. Following in a long line of inventive Kinect hacks, the folks at Interactive Fabrication have produced a program called Fabricate Yourself that enlists the machine to capture images of users and convert them into 3D printable files. The hack, which was presented at Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction Conference in January, results in tiny 3D models that resemble Han Solo trapped in carbonite and sport jigsaw edges that can be used to make a grid of small, but accurate renderings. Fabricate Yourself is still in its infancy, and the resulting models are relatively short on detail, but we're no less excited by the possibilities -- just think of all the things we could monogram in the time it takes to produce one soapy statuette. Video after the jump.
Kinect plus 3D printing equals instant miniature you
Thanks to an inventive, and kind of bizarre, project, people have immortalized themselves as Kinect sees them. The Fabricate Yourself project uses 3D models captured by Kinect as the basis for a 3D-printed figure. Designer Karl D.D. Willis came up with the project as an interactive installation for the Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction conference. Attendees's shapes were captured by Kinect, and then turned into pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. But the implications are larger than just a cool thing at a conference. As 3D printers become cheaper, it will be possible for more people to use this technology to take 3D snapshots as if they were taking Polaroids. It will also be possible to make a tiny action-figure version of yourself to fight with the Hulk. Not that we, as totally mature adults, have any interest in such a thing, of course.
Cornell University scientists use 3D printer to engineer human ear made of silicone
Welcome to the future, where scientists can print body parts. No, seriously: researchers at Cornell University have used 3D printing technology to engineer a human ear out of silicone. This should one day soon open the door to the creating functional human body parts using DNA-injected 'ink.' The team at the Computational Synthesis Laboratory, led by Hod Lipson, are now testing the printer as a way to crank out synthetic heart valves. Check out the ear being synthesized in the video after the break.
3D printed concert flute rapidly prototypes sound (video)
The world's first store for 3D printed goods just opened in Brussels, and while we imagine they've already got a fair selection of prototyped merchandise to choose, might we suggest they invest in a few production runs of this fabulous new flute? Amit Zoran of the MIT Media Lab -- yes, the same soul who helped dream up a 3D food printer early this year -- has now printed a fully-functional concert flute with a minimum of human intervention. Directing an Objet Connex500 3D printer (which can handle multiple materials at the same time) to spit out his CAD design, dollop by tiny dollop, in a single 15-hour run, he merely had to wash off support material, add springs, and assemble four printed pieces to finish the instrument up. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, of course, so how does it sound? Find out for yourself in the video below.
.MGX opens world's first store dedicated to 3D printed goods
Is your Matter Compiler broken? Well, step on down to the local .MGX for all your 3D printed needs! Materialise's .MGX brand has just opened its very own flagship store in Brussels, and it professes to be the first physical store solely dedicated to 3D printed wares. It's primarily high design baubles right now, but we're sure it won't be long before we're chucking our old and busted cutlery into the deke bin and churning out new sets with our at-home M.C. we bought at Target. Right, Neal?
RepRap prints transistors, but fabs have little to fear
Budding hobbyists almost have it too easy these days, what with all the ready-made components, Mindstorms and Arduino boards, but there's still a couple of folks out there kicking it old-school... and printing transistors at home. Yes, that's a RepRap 3D printer you see there, with a MakerBot Unicorn pen head, depositing tiny dots of silver ink to form intricate rows of tiny electrodes. Sadly, the printer doesn't currently automate the entire process, as you'll also need to separately apply a dielectric material and a host of chemicals to get a working field effect transistor from scratch, but once the basic process is perfected the possibilities, as they say, are endless. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got a hot date with some vacuum tubes. Find the basic formula for DIY transistors at our source link.
3D printing provider Sculpteo and TUAW want to give you... yourself
Remember that cool little avatar (picture at right) that I had made by Sculpteo? It's a great example of the work that the 3D printing service provider is doing for people around the world. Sculpteo is using the avatars as a unique way to get the word out about 3D printing, and they'd like one lucky TUAW reader to get the chance to make an avatar of his- or herself, or to give the Christmas gift of an avatar to a friend. Mac users can create 3D creations either using standard CAD software such as AutoCAD for Mac or free solutions like Google Sketchup, and then upload the files to Sculpteo for printing. Whether you're planning on creating art, a mockup of a new product, or just fascinated with the concept of 3D printing, the service is worth looking into. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment telling us who you'd like to make an avatar of -- yourself, a relative, or friend. If you're the winner, we'll get you in touch with the right people so you can send the necessary photos for that extra touch of realism. Here are the rules: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, leave a comment telling us who you'd like to 'avatarize.' The comment must be left before midnight on Sunday, December 12, 2010, 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time. You may enter only once. One winner will be selected at random from the entries and will receive a customized avatar from Sculpteo valued at US$74.90. Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Shapeways glass vase: 3D printing at its finest
Who says pottery will never be trumped? As 3D printing becomes an increasingly viable solution to producing -- well, just about anything -- Shapeways has introduced a glass vase that would look just lovely on your mum's kitchen table. Oh, in case you missed the whole "putting two and two together bit," this is a glass vase created with a 3D printer. Traditionally, 3D printers haven't delved into the world of glass, but it's clear from this that it's not only possible, but a great material to use when looking to craft stupendously detailed gear. The colors you see were added after the fact, so in theory, you could get one in any color you so desire. Too bad a price point isn't readily available...
Inhabitat's Week in Green: of electric tractor unicycles, garbage-powered garbage trucks, and luminous nanoparticle trees
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. This week we were blinded by the light as researchers unveiled a way to transform city trees into luminous streetlights using gold nanoparticles. We also showcased a mesmerizing paper LED structure shaped like a tree at Tokyo Designers Week, and speaking of stellar architecture, check out this stunning star-shaped Taiwanese tower topped with a built-in wind turbine. In other news, strap on your rollerblades and hang tight - from the Department of Questionable Transportation comes the FlyRad, an insane electric unicycle that pulls you down the street at 25 miles per hour. Meanwhile, the city of Toronto is doing their part to preserve the environment by rolling out a fleet of garbage trucks that can be powered by the very waste they collect. Finally, the University of Rhode Island signaled a bright future for efficient transportation as they unveiled four designs that could tap the United States' 2.7 million miles of roadways for solar energy. This week we also looked at several new applications for futuristic manufacturing technologies - a dutch designer has pioneered a way to create 3D printed shoes that fit feet perfectly, and researchers have found that activated carbon cloth is a quicker picker-upper for toxic waste. Finally, with the holidays on their way, this week we rounded up our top ten green gadget gifts for 2010!
Great geek holiday gift idea: Sculpteo 3D printing
Here at TUAW, we're starting to rev up the holiday gift ideas. And while this gift idea isn't completely Apple-related, you can certainly think up some cool things to make for your Mac, iPhone, and iPad-loving buddies. Sculpteo.com provides a 3D printing service that can take 3D design files and turn them into physical objects. The company accepts many different formats; for Mac users, you'll probably want to use the free Google Sketchup application to create your design. There's also a set of online tools for making more simple shapes. So, what can you make with this wonderful 3D printing technology? Anything! Want to make a mockup of your idea for the iPhone 5? Send Sculpteo your design and it'll be printed in either plastic or a ceramic-like material. How about a miniature Newton MessagePad 2100 keychain? No problem. Perhaps a bust of Steve Jobs to grace your desk? That's a possibility. And then there's my personal favorite; the customized avatars. Yes, that's Mini-me standing there on that desk at right, complete with my traditional baseball cap and TUAW T-shirt. The company takes two head shots (direct and profile) and creates a frighteningly accurate miniature of you or your friend. Provide Sculpteo with a logo or other details, and you can customize these things all you want. The price is about $75 for a 7 cm. (2.8 inch) tall figure and $130 for a 10 cm. (3.9 inch) figure, but Sculpteo is currently offering a 50% discount through November 30, 2010 to introduce this service to the USA. That's perfect timing for Christmas gifts! TidBITS editor Adam Engst may have his own action figure, but now I have my own personal TUAW Steve avatar to go into battle with him. Boo-yah! The avatars and other items are printed with a Z Corporation ZPrinter 650 3D printer, which I'm sure would be a nice, albeit pricey, gift for your favorite TUAW bloggers. We'll be bringing you many other gift ideas over the next month, so please keep your browser pointed to TUAW and we'll help you spend your money.
