3D printed brain?

Posted on by aneczka2307

http://3dprint.com/92071/your-brain-on-3d-printing/

You can 3D print your own brain.

This Is Your Brain On 3D Printing

If you’ve been through the experience of having a complete MRI brain scan, and you’re not squeamish about such things, you might be interested in building a scale model 3D print of your brain itself.

That MRI scan data means you now have the option to print your brain.

meshlab brain scan file

As for that MRI scan, you’ll need the sort of scan free of surrounding structures, and a radiologist can create a range of scans and analysis for the various elements of tissues.

Why you’d do this without significant motivation is anyone’s guess, but author and editor Richard Baguley went that route. He says once you request DICOM data of your brain, it’s possible to ask for a CD which includes the various scans, or failing that, go straight to your doctor to make the request–as the patient, it’s within your purview to ask for these files.

DICOM, or Digital Images and Communications in Medicine, data represents an open format which can be utilized by a range of medical systems.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging itself is amazing technology which uses a powerful magnetic field to react with the atoms of the human body to create a radio signal, and by shaping the resulting magnetic field, the MRI can map and capture the structure of the brain and its varying tissues and blood vessels.

Image 807

Baguley says converting the images for 3D printing can be done via a host of free and open source software such as Slicerweb, Osirix, 3DSlicer and Invesialus. He uses InVesalius in his tutorial, finding it the most simple package to take on the task.

His step-by-step description of the process results in an .STL file, but he says there’s a bit of work left to be done after that. He uses MeshLab to clean up model up prepare for printing.

Brain Scan 3D Print

Ultimately, Baguley printed out his version of his brain via Cura and a Lulzbot TAZ 5 printer.

“I was quite pleased with how my print turned out. The convoluted texture of my grey matter was well captured and printed on the top of the brain, but the similar texture on the side wasn’t quite as clear,” Baguley says of the finished article. “That’s probably because of the way the scan was processed. I could get more detail on the side by using other scans and combining the results.”

He adds that with a satisfactory 3D model complete, he may well print it in a flexible plastic or laser-cut it from wood to produce an interesting ornament…because what do you really do with a 3D printed brain?

“Now I have the 3D model, the possibilities are endless. I could print it in flexible plastic to give my cats an amusing toy,” Baguley suggests cheekily. “I could laser-cut it out in wood to produce an interesting ornament. Or I could do a small print to have available the next time someone asks to speak to the brains of this organization….”

Baguley has been writing about technology for more than 20 years and his credits include work in Wired, Macworld, USA Today and Reviewed.com. You can read the exceptionally detailed documentation Baguley created for his Brain Printing Project here on Hackaday.

brain

3dprint.com

by  | AUGUST 28, 2015

3D printed titanium jaw implant for a sea turtle

Posted on by aneczka2307

http://3dprint.com/65476/sea-turtle-3d-printed-jaw/

turtleani

Turkish Turtle Receives 3D Printed Titanium Jaw

3DPrint.com head office is stationed in sunny Florida, I’m here in northeast Ohio, where we’re still waiting in mid-May for spring to settle in for sure. Back in February, I skipped out on Cleveland’s -20°F cold front and hopped a plane down to visit a friend in south Florida for a week. As my fiancé and family continued to freeze, my friend asked if I wanted to go down to the ocean one evening, so we could see if the sea turtles were coming in. Aside from my obvious cheer at weather that was actually a ‘real feel’ of a solid 100° temperature difference (it’s a different world, going from -20° to 80° in one day) and frolicking beachside, I was so excited to go see the turtles–few animals in nature are quite as impressive, long-lived, and stately as the sea turtle.

Seven species of sea turtle currently live around the world, and four are classified as either “endangered” or “critically endangered,” with another two being “vulnerable” to joining their ranks. One of the endangered species, the Caretta caretta or loggerhead sea turtle, has a lifespan of up to almost 70 years and can be found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea–all places where, especially since they need to lay their eggs on land, they are unfortunately susceptible to the negative environmental influence brought about by humans.

turtle

In Turkey, a loggerhead sea turtle was recently brought to the Sea Turtle Research, Rescue and Rehabilitation Center at Pamukkale University (PAU). The turtle, which they called AKUT3, had significant damage to its upper and lower jaws, and the team at PAU noted that the turtle was unable to feed on its own in the wild.

The Sea Turtle Research, Rescue and Rehabilitation Center at PAU was quick to help, and it turned out that the turtle’s best chance for healing came courtesy of 3D printing. The Center’s director, Prof. Dr. Yakup Kaska, noted that 3D technology proved to be the best hope for the turtle–and this particular operation would represent the first time in the world that a sea turtle would benefit from the technology.

btech

BTech Innovation, “the first private R&D corporation in Turkey,” has extensive experience with 3D technology for medical applications–creating medical-grade implants, models, and prostheses–and came to the turtle’s aid. Using CT scans from the turtle’s veterinary care, the BTech team used the Mimics Innovation Suite from Materialise to create a 3D model of the affected areas of the turtle’s jaws. Ultimately, BTech took the models created to design an implant for the turtle, 3D printing it in titanium.

jaw closeup

The surgery was a success and the patient is recovering quite nicely, though that process is sure in itself to require some time. The turtle’s veterinary surgeon, Prof. Dr. Anas M. Anderson, noted that the turtle did not show any signs of rejecting the implant, following a post-op examination 18 days after the procedure.

While I didn’t actually get to see any sea turtles on my Floridian jaunt a few months ago, it’s wonderful to know that thanks to the efforts of caring veterinary teams around the world, there will still be more chances to see these incredible, endangered gentle giants as their health needs can be met and their lives saved.

Have you heard of similar stories of 3D printed implants in the veterinary world? Let us know what you think of this one in the 3D Printed Titanium Jaw Implant for a Sea Turtle forum thread over at 3DPB.com.

turtle jaw

btech

3dprint.com

by   | MAY 14, 2015

Anything’s possible with 3D printing !

Posted on by aneczka2307

http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/smallbiz-tech/anythings-possible-with-3d-printing-20150422-1mr9w6

A 3D printed reef unit after eight months.

Anything’s possible with 3D printing

The rapid technological development of 3D imagery and 3D printing is so advanced that actors will only have to be filmed once before their image can be replicated for any facial expression; reefs can be transported and rebuilt around the world and soon you will be able to design and print your own surfboard at home.

And it is all happening right now.

Mark Ruff is an internationally acclaimed photographer who has received awards from around the globe. He has set up a company, 3D Body Scan, where 3D imaging is changing the future of motion pictures around the world.

“I didn’t invent the technology but I am certainly using it to my advantage,” Ruff says. “I use an 80 camera, 24 Mpx array, which instantaneously captures a body or face in what is called a near real-time system. Multiple cameras capture a decisive moment in time from many angles. When these frames are edited together, the moment appears frozen as we move it around.

“Time splice is able to provide all levels of production to provide a turnkey solution. This style of imagery resembles 3D modelling: a technique creating a model of a subject and manipulating it in 3D space. The big difference is that time splice captures the real world in 3D.”

Ruff says that in the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, where Brad Pitt is born old and dies young, the actor was shot at his own age in every sequence, but 3D modelling and Paul Ekman’s FACS (facial action coding system) allowed post-production to age him and make him look younger, as well as transporting his head onto other people’s bodies.

“The reality is that you only need to shoot actors once now and you can manipulate their image to anything you want for the future,” he says.

Ruff, who says he is the only person in Australia developing this type of technology, is working with Hollywood producers and Australian sports bodies on 3D imagery.

He says the possibilities are endless.

“With broadcast, you can create a ‘fly-through’ effect where a sports player, for example, could appear in your living room; you can create characters for games based on real people; and for the fashion industry, you will only need to photograph people once and you will be able to fit and design garments for them interactively.”

Ruff says once a 3D model is created, it can easily be turned into a figurine and printed in full colour up to 34 centimetre tall.

However, that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to 3D printing.

David Lennon and Alex Goad have co-founded the Reef Design Lab, which is dedicated to advancing the effectiveness of purpose-built reef units, as well as marine infrastructure such as jetties, rock walls, marinas and canal estates.

Lennon and Goad have designed the modular artificial reef structure (MARS) to recreate a highly conducive environment for sea life in areas in which natural habitats have been damaged or destroyed by pollution, climate change, destructive fishing practices and other human activities.

Locking together to form a lattice-like structure, each of the modules is rendered with various indentations, undulations and holes to mimic the calcified skeletons of dead coral.

“Another application is repairing reefs damaged by ship groundings,” Lennon says. “It would be possible to survey the damaged reef section, create 3D units on the computer, email them to the 3D sand printer, print the required reef units, ship them to site, deploy them and the reef scape would [be] . . . extremely natural and function very effectively for providing immediate refuge for fish and stable substrate for natural coral regrowth or planting of corals.”

Lennon has worked with James Gardiner, a Sydney-based architect who identified 3D printer manufacturer D-Shape in Italy as a potential manufacturer of constructed reef units.

“James and I created the first prototype design we built and deployed off Bahrain,” Lennon says. “My other company, Sustainable Ocean International, with Environment Arabia in Bahrain won a two-year contract to design and build 10 reefs for Bahrain to help increase fish stocks. We saw the need for a Bahrain-based company that could manufacture artificial reef units to supply the Arabian Gulf market and, hence, Reef Arabia was born and founded in 2012.”

The one issue Lennon faces is cost. The reality is that 3D imagery is expensive and like any new technology, it gets cheaper as more and more people use it and more companies start manufacturing machines.

“The current printer we use would cost around $1 million to buy and set up in Bahrain, so it’s not a simple investment, but anecdotal evidence suggests that this specific unit deployed off Bahrain is performing as well as a comparable-sized concrete unit.”

While 3D printing artificial reefs is a big job, something of a smaller scale is a lot easier and cheaper, such as surfboards.

Gary Elphick started Disrupt Surfing just over a year ago because of his frustration with surfboards being mass produced.

Elphick, who ran a surfing accessory business, thought the individuality of surfboards was getting lost.

“I really believed that there was a better way to design surfboards,” Elphick says. “We originally started looking at the technology and realised that through 3D, we could design and print a surfboard.”

Disrupt Surfing uses 3D printing design technology to make a digital set-up of the surfboard and then the customer can direct the art, finish and design.

“We make a digital file from the customer’s request; we then create a 3D render before we 3D print the design using a new heat-sensitive moulded plastic,” Elphick says. “Next, we refine the design until the customer is happy and then we start shaping before uploading the 3D digital file to the shaping machine before being glassed and sprayed. The board is then ready for surfing.

“At the moment, the process takes four weeks, but the aim is to get it down to four hours.”

Elphick initially started working from home before renting premises on Bondi Beach. However, he only takes online orders.

“We had queues outside our building and it was annoying the landlord and other tenants, so we decided to move to our own premises,” he says.

“At the moment, the business is growing 20 per cent per month and we are intending to expand into Europe in June. We have already formed partnerships with companies in Sri Lanka and Hong Kong.”

smh.com.au

by Louis White | May 10, 2015

3D printing underwear by Russians

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

All underwear made from synthetic lace has been banned in Russia, so the Russians had to get a bit creative in order to keep producing

Enter the 3D printer. Although the plastic feel has led to the underwear being described as ‘interesting but not for everyday use’, it looks like Russian 3D printing is going to focus more on thongs rather than guns 🙂

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/…/russians-3d-pri…/506022.html

Russians 3D-Printing Underwear After Lace Ban

Earlier this summer, Russia’s parliament took the controversial step of banning all underwear made from synthetic lace, preventing its manufacture and sale within the country. But if Russians don’t like the ban, which labels the undergarments as harmful to Russian’s health, they can always make their own — if they have a 3D-printer.

This August, Russia designer Viktoria Anoka hired Moscow company 3DPrintus to create a pair of panties for the company Lascana, presented as part of St. Petersburg’s technology fair “Geek Picnic.”

“Lascana was definitely the craziest thing we have been asked to print,” 3DPrintus founder and CEO Konstantin Ivanov told The Moscow Times. The project took more than three months and is the first underwear to be printed in Russia.

Of course, the end product’s plastic feel meant it wasn’t entirely comfortable. Anastasia Belousova, who modeled the underwear for Lascana, said the attire was “interesting but not for everyday life.”

But 3D-printing isn’t just a novelty. The business, once confined to research laboratories, is on the rise in Moscow. The process, in which printers lay down layer after layer of material, is hailed as revolutionary because it allows manufacturers to move production away from huge factories in faraway countries to more tailored, localized production.

There are about a dozen 3D-printing companies in Moscow. Businesses like 3DPrintus allow designers to upload their designs onto an online platform — http://www.3dprintus.ru — for customers to choose from. The customer then selects the product they want and chooses the material they would like it made from. “It allows designers to create a product and bring it to the public for much cheaper than if they were to make it in a factory,” Ivanov said.

The variety of materials available is vast: everything from synthetic plastics to silver and gold. Even Ivanov’s wedding ring, consisting of two intertwining bands of yellow and white gold, was printed with one of the machines. For a precious material like gold they first made a prototype, then a mold out of wax and finally the ring.

Although the 3D-printing process takes a long time, techniques are developing rapidly. When creating material out of stainless steel, for instance, 3DPrintus uses a computer to spray steel powder in layers, much like an inkjet printer.

This spray method can create much more intricate designs. The company is currently in the experimental phase of creating a powder out of gold that would open the door for much more intricate designs and make the process much faster.

To prove how versatile the products from the printers can be, Ivanov made a 3D model of a Moscow Times reporter, a “3D selfie” he called it.

The process started by taking pictures from every angle. The photos were then uploaded onto a laptop that started processing the images. First making a rough outline of the pictures to create a 3D image, it repeated the process each time with more detail until a mesh of points was created and a 3D version appeared on a screen. This image was then sent to printers located in a large warehouse on the outskirts of Moscow.

A week later the “selfie” was ready. The amount of detail was incredible: everything from dress creases to the details of shoes.

Many say that 3D-printing could open a world of opportunity. Aid agencies can use them to cheaply create items needed for water sanitation or replace missing items in aid packages. British company ScanLAB, for instance, has been working on a project with Greenpeace to map icebergs to aid in research about climate change.

But while there is no denying that 3D-printing could be used for a lot of good, there is also the potential that the technology could be used for dangerous and possibly destructive purposes. Blueprints for creating guns using a 3D-printer can easily be found online. And because the weapons could be made of plastic, they could even slip unnoticed through airport security.

But for now 3DPrintus will likely stick to underwear and other more peaceful items. And while Ivanov scoffs that 3D-printing will ever really replace mass production, the idea of something made-to-order yet affordable is certainly appealing.

THEMOSCOWTIMES.COM
by Rebecca Hartmann | Aug 27 2014 20:39