3D printing with light !

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

3D Printing with Light has Finally Happened!

http://3dprint.com/26679/rohinni-3d-printed-lightpaper/

lightbulb

Rohinni Uses 3D Printing to Cast the Thinnest Light Product In the World

What if you could just print light on whatever you wanted? We’re watching 3D printing make progress in nearly every arena, so using it for creating one of the most basic needs we have on a daily basis seems only logical.

We’ve long been using creations of light based on inventions from historical geniuses and technological giants. Today though, as 3D printing advances, you will be headed in the direction of printing your own lighting with the help of US-based Rohinni and their new product, Lightpaper.

While we aren’t quite ready to unscrew all the lightbulbs in the office and throw them out, the idea of replacing them eventually with thin sheets of 3D printed light is a stunning consideration.

printing

With 3D printing being conducive to embedding a multitude of different technologies and electronics, 3D printing with light should prove to offer new innovation and flexibility for manufacturers. While Rohinni does have mild competition in the area, they do have one completely unique factor: Their product is razor thin. And flexible. And 3D printable.

According to Rohinni, the emergence of printable light is on par with 3D printing in terms of new possibilities and application potential. With a number of different mindblowing and innovative methods used to merge technologies with 3D printing and electronics, this form of lighting, which can be produced rapidly and affordably, could offer use and advancement in various applications for consumer products, and specialized areas such as automotive, for headlights.

They are the only company working to 3D print paper using an innovative method combining ink and tiny LEDs which are printed out on a conductive layer and then sandwiched between two other layers, lit up with LED current.

rohinni

Light goes hand in hand with technology, and often creates that wow factor because, quite simply, it catches the eye. Rohinni is working to spotlight their technology in a bid to gain the attention of industry movers and shakers who would benefit from its applications.

light

OLED (organic light emitting diodes) technology is a competing force for this product, in their use of LED technology in a series of thin, light emitting films, most commonly used to power televisions these days. But Rohinni’s eventual mainstream direction will be for backlighting for gadgets and everyday objects.

With the goal for Lightpaper to be available to the hobbyist market eventually, 2015 is the target date to bring the 3D printed light source to the commercial and industrial marketplace. They are currently still working to streamline and perfect the product.

Is this something you have thought about that would work with the technology of 3D printing? What do you think this will be useful for in particular? Tell us your thoughts in the World’s Thinnest Light forum over at 3DPB.com.

3DPRINT.COM
by  | DECEMBER 1, 2014

3D printing revolutionizing burn treatment!

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

3D Printing may replace skin grafting for burn victims in the future! Check out how by following the link below 🙂

http://www.cbsnews.com/…/how-3d-printing-could-revolutioni…/

final-2-still006.jpg

How 3D printing could revolutionize burn treatment

TORONTO – Dr. Marc Jeschke, the head of one of Canada’s largest burn treatment centers, had to admit the 3D skin printer in his hands didn’t look revolutionary.

“I actually find it kind of fish-tanky,” he told CBS News, laughing. But this boxy prototype could change the way burns are treated, from current skin grafting methods Jeschke calls “barbaric” to a process his team believes will be faster, cheaper and easier on the patient, with an end result — functional human skin — promising to be just like the real thing.

“It’s cutting edge,” said Jeschke, the director ofRoss Tilley Burn Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, whose team developed the process and printer in collaboration with researchers from the University of Toronto. “We can mimic how your skin looks. And that’s the evolvement, that’s something new, that’s something novel.”

To begin the process of creating new human skinon the printer, Jeschke explained that healthy skin cells are first harvested from the burn patient, then analyzed and multiplied in the lab.

“We grow these cells in various containers and make them exactly into the cell type that we want,” said Jeschke. Then, “the printer tells the cells where to go.”

It does so via a cartridge, which weaves the cells together with a gel-like matrix serving as the skin’s 3D scaffolding. The cellular tapestry that emerges from the cartridge floats through the printer’s reservoir and gathers around a rotating drum. The strips are then collected and cultured.

“You basically imprint your various cells into this three-dimensional matrix that comes out and it’s basically ready to be put on the patient,” said Jeschke.

The printer is still in preclinical trials, but Jeschke’s team said they hope to move to human trials within two years, and if those go well, printers like these could be in hospitals and helping burn patients within five years.

But to get there, Jeschke said the project will need more funding. In September, members of the team were selected as the Canadian winners of the 2014 James Dyson Award, a prestigious international engineering prize that comes with cash, but only a fraction of what it will cost to get the project across the finish line.

And there are other questions that still need to be answered.

Growing enough cells remains a challenge. “That’s the current issue, which is how to get cells to magnify, multiply and grow in a speed that’s beyond what they normally do,” Jeschke said.

final-2-still004.jpg

Should they succeed, they’ll help change a process Jeschke said is in dire need of an upgrade. Current skin grafts for burn victims require removing a healthy section of a patient’s skin to cover their wound, essentially creating a second wound in the process. The greater percentage of the body that’s burned, the more skin that’s needed — and the less that’s available. Skin removed for these grafts can be expanded, but not by much.

“Your donor site, once you take the skin, of course has to heal,” explained Jeschke. “So a patient with 40 percent burn or 50 percent burn is usually in a hospital about 80 to 100 days.”

With their printer, Jeschke and his team think they can cut that recovery time down significantly. And while other methods can leave patients with skin that doesn’t match their natural color, or lacks follicles or sweat glands, researchers on the project say their method will allow them to eventually add those complex layers of cells.

final-2-still005.jpg

“Someone will be able to take their own cells, and incorporate it into this printer and have skin graft printed that are made especially for them,” said Lian Leng, a PhD student at the the University of Toronto’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and one of the lead developers of the printer, commercially known as the PrintAlive Bioprinter.

The printer could have a critical impact in underdeveloped countries, where even a small burn can be fatal. Researchers on the project plan to train doctors in Cambodia to grow cells and operate the printer themselves.

Such a device could also provide critical support to soldiers burned on the battlefield. That’s prompting the U.S. military to fund similar projects, like one at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

“You probably can reduce war fatalities significantly if you have an off-the-shelf skin product that can be put on,” said Jeschke.

Leng agreed with Jeschke’s assessment of the printer’s looks — “It really is a mini version of a fish tank.”

It’s a fish tank, though, that could eventually save lives.

CBSNEWS.COM
by ALEXANDER TROWBRIDGE, CBS NEWS | November 13, 2014, 5:01 AM

First 3D printed laptop

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

Thanks to the massive support that it received on Indiegogo, it looks like we’re going to be seeing and hearing a lot more about 3D-printed laptops very soon! 🙂

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-11/11/pi-top

World’s first 3D-printed laptop smashes crowdfund campaign

With just 68 hours till the deadline, the world’s first 3D-printed Raspberry Pi laptop, Pi-Top, has already smashed its Indiegogo campaign target, racking up a whopping $129,000 (£81,000).

What makes Pi-Top stand out is that it fuses a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design and 3D printing — a combination that endows you with the prerequisite know-how to create your own hardware product, according to its creators.

The main aim of the project is to make “hardware as accessible as software,” so the brains behind this 3D-printed laptop want to make their product as beginner-friendly as possible.

With that in mind, the creators — a group of studentengineers from various UK universities — have ensured that anybody can make the kit in an evening.

Creativity is also key to the product as Pi-Top aims to provide a platform on which you can hone your computing skills and learn to code your own hardware. What’s more, as learning through gaming has become a big thing these days, Pi-Top wants its consumers to take part in that trend. The makers state on their Indiegogo page that, “a gamified learning experience will take you to a stage where you are designing your own components and products”.

While the Pi-Top boasts versatility through its customisable design, whereby you can 3D-print your own 5″ x 5″ case, the product’s not just about the appearance. The makers want you to “learn how to make and control home automation devices, robots, and consumer electronics,” and they’ve also toured the UK, imparting their technological skills to UK pupils.

WIRED.CO.UK
by EMIKO JOZUKA | 11 NOVEMBER 14 

3D printed AR 15 lower gun

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

This goes to show everyone that 3D printed guns are not as straightforward and simple as everybody thinks they are. However, does the concept still frighten you?

http://3dprint.com/22948/3d-printed-ar-15-lower-gun/

Banana to scale

WarFairy Charon AR-15 Lower: 3D printed gun presents design issues during shooting

Shots have been fired! And with great interest, hobbyists who are not only 3D printing enthusiasts but 3D printing gun enthusiasts, are taking note of the latest news on the WarFairy 3D printable AR-15 lower, with video and explanation of the process provided by Reddit user schlauncha.

Talk began when WarFairy released a 3D printable gun design on Reddit, which still required some refinement, as well as a conversion kit. Known as the Hanuman AR-15 Bullpup, it does not have a safety, and requires the user to operate at his own risk. The specs state that it should work without issue, but that was not the case for schlauncha.

In using the open source design for the WarFairy Charon, schlauncha added some of his own modifications, to include:

  • Different and larger buttpad for his desired length of pull.gun
    • Beefed up front takedown pin area and bolt release pin area.
    • 3D printing with ABS using his Da Vinci XYZPrinter 1.0, consuming approximately 1 spool of 600g.

Due to the amount of backlash in recent press over 3D printing of guns, it is important to note that schlauncha lives in an area where it is legal for him to 3D print the gun, as well as to possess it.

“This firearm conforms to all ATF rules like any other AR15 lower,” points out schlauncha.

Schlauncha encounters some challenges, but optimism reigns with his project as he employs the ‘try, try again’ mission statement and keeps refining and fixing the 3D printed gun with each issue that crops up. His first challenge was in trying to open the binder tube which he speculated must have been pushed wrong or perhaps he ‘thumped it’ as he ‘split it in half through the trigger pin.’ In need of actetone to make a fix, schlauncha had to hold off on firing the gun until the next day.

after six shots it split vertically through the rear takedown pin as shown here

All in all, the 3D printed gun held out better than schlauncha had expected; however, once the gun was glued back together, he noted some continuing problems: “The gun still has some issues with failure to feed due to drag in the buffer tube, and after six shots it split vertically through the rear takedown pin. But, being 3D printed ABS, I believe I can just get some acetone down into that split and have it re-bond successfully.”

His final conclusion was that it was probably time to retire this initial model and move on to a new 3D printed revision. Discuss the process–and the issues Schlauncha encountered with his 3D printed gun in the Modified Warfairy Charon forum at 3DPB.com.

image 6

3DPRINT.COM
by  | NOVEMBER 10, 2014

Home of the future

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

This article brings together some of the recent engineering and construction achievements that have come about as a result of 3D printing, and gives a glimpse into what 3D printing and architecture may produce together in the future!

Still the question remains; Would you live in a 3D Printed House?

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/12/would-you-live-in-a-3d-printed-house/

Would You Live In A 3D Printed House?
The potential of additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, to change the way buildings are made is indisputable. It’s being touted as a solution to challenges in our cities ranging from the need for affordable housing to infrastructure modernisation. The process has been slow, but it may well be a key ingredient in the future of the building industries.

In the last two years, technological advances in scalability are allowing 3D printing to move beyond small-scale architectural models and prototypes. It is now being used in actual housing and infrastructure construction—achieving lower labor costs and finally delivering those long-promised economies of scale.

Helped along by the increasing prevalence of digital 3D modelling software for building and infrastructure design, some of the new results are pretty mind-boggling, too.

Here are three of the latest examples from around the world, which reveal the ways in which 3D printing is changing approaches to architecture, engineering and construction.

1. Kurilpa Bridge, Brisbane

Road and bridge infrastructure is just as important as housing to make cities liveable and workable. Until recently, direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), essentially 3D printing metal parts, was used extensively in the aerospace and automotive industries. But it was not explored thoroughly for usability and cost-effectiveness for bridges and other types of urban infrastructure. The primary reason is because each bridge is a unique design and the savings from prototyping and manufacturing aren’t as obvious.

Moving now to Australia, global engineering firm Arup was tasked with creating components for an unconventional pedestrian bridge. Arup decided to use 3D printing as an internal research project to determine how a laser-sintered, printed metal part could hold up to structural standards. The parts for such a bridge also had to be load-bearing connections.

Arup’s engineers came up with a complex design with “root” supports and extra struts were added to the part to support it during printing. The struts allowed for a hollow design that reduced the overall weight of the bridge node and was more aesthetically pleasing than a traditionally machined one. The design and production of the bridge nodes allowed new degrees of design freedom and Arup is already using the research on other projects.

2. Canal House, Amsterdam

The first entrant in the race to build a fully 3D-printed house is Amsterdam’s DUS Architects. Using The KamerMaker (room builder), a 20-foot-tall custom 3D printer created by DUS and Ultimaker, the architecture firm has been printing a house along one of Amsterdam’s famous canals bit by bit for the last year-and-a-half and expects to have it completed in 2015.

The KamerMaker works essentially like a larger version of a desktop Makerbot. The printer head extrudes the melted plastic material along the programmed path on the X and Y axes and when finished moves up one step along the Z axis. Unlike its desktop cousin, it can print whole rooms.

The exterior walls of the Canal House cover a range of sustainable materials, including Hotmelt—a type of industrial glue developed by German chemicals manufacturer Henkel. Comprised of 80 per cent vegetable oil, Hotmelt is used to form bio-based plastics. DUS and Henkel are also experimenting with eco-concrete. They are testing out a variable concrete mix that allows the team to add insulative material and colour to the wall sections. Once printed, the wall sections fit together sort of like Lego.

While the Canal House won’t be completed until next year, it has already created several innovations, including one of the largest-scale 3D printers in the world and advances in sustainable materials.

3. WinSun Houses, Shanghai

On the other side of world comes an entirely different perspective on 3D-printed housing. While the Canal House is experimental, architecturally elegant and pushes the envelope of materials science and constructibility, it will take three years to complete.

Meanwhile, Shanghai WinSun Decoration Design Engineering claims to have erected 10 3D-printed houses—each costing about $4,800—in less than 24 hours.

There’s some debate over whether Shanghai WinSun’s houses are genuinely a 3D creation because they were printed not as a single item, but in parts that were then assembled onsite. But the feat is impressive nonetheless.

The simple, concrete-framed buildings were made using an enormous 3D printer that is 150 meters long, 10 meters wide and 6.6 meters high. The houses each cover an area of 200 square meters and were designed to someday provide affordable housing to the homeless.

The 3D-printed “ink” of each structure is a combination of recycled construction and industrial waste materials formed into structural concrete and wall panels.

These houses may not win any design awards, but the manufacturing concept that delivered them so cheaply and quickly is a leap forward in sustainable tilt-up construction. The process contains costs and could be applied to solving housing crises in major cities around the world.

New Uses For 3D Printing

The above examples are just three among the many new uses of 3D printing at building scale that are popping up around the world. They clearly point to a world where advances in 3D-modelling software in combination with advances 3D-printing technologies (both in terms of size and materials like concrete and carbon fibre) will allow architecture and construction professionals to more efficiently and more sustainably design and implement building solutions for our rapidly urbanising planet.

As the organic form of Arup’s root supports suggest, 3D printing may also indicate a future of beautiful new architecture and infrastructure in our cities.

GIZMODO.COM.AU
by  | 11 DECEMBER 2014 2:30 PM

New materials used in 3D printers

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

Think 3D printers are the only thing that keep developing? Check out this article to see how the materials being used in 3D printers evolve as well 🙂

http://3dprint.com/22837/adding-quasicrystals/

Quasicrystals-3d-printing-strong-parts-1

Adding Quasicrystals to Complex Metal Alloys Provides New Material for 3D Printing

Advances in 3D printing aren’t only occurring in the technology of the machines or in the materials that can be used for printing, but also in the very creation of the materials themselves. As 3D printers become a prominent method for the creation of manufacturing components, the need for the production of stronger and more stress-resistant parts calls for the creation of new materials. And with global revenues of US $2.2 billion generated through additive manufacturing techniques, you can bet that this has the attention of a large number of researchers around the world.

At the University of Lorraine in France, researchers have developed a metal alloy with properties that are crystal-like in nature. This type of Complex Metal Alloy (CMA) is known as a quasicrystal and forms an integral component in the design and creation of new materials for 3D printing. CMA materials are of particular interest because of properties such as high resistance to wear and corrosion as well as low friction. The need to develop new CMA materials comes from the inherently brittle nature of the currently existing CMAs, something that prevents their implementation on a large enough scale to be useful to large manufacturers.

It is through the incorporation of this new CMA into a composite material, that addresses its inherent weaknesses while bringing its strengths into play, that may make this shift in scale possible. The composite material that has been developed for use in 3D printing to date, has mechanical properties similar to those present in composites of brass and steel, but provide the advantage of having a significantly lower density.

The research and its conclusions performed by Samuel Kenzari, David Bonina, Jean Marie Dubois and Vincent Fournée of the University of Lorraine, has been published in a paper titled “Complex Metallic Alloys as New Materials for Additive Manufacturing” and was published in the Journal of Science and Technology of Advanced Materials. The polymer matrix composites currently in use in 3D printing have been successfully reinforced with quasicrystals, according to the research team.

The success has been such that commercialization of the material is already underway. Researcher Vincent Fournée noted that there has been particular interest from the aeronautics and automobile industries as the reduction in density leads to a reduction in the overall weight of the vehicle. This lowered weight increases fuel efficiency, something which he says has great appeal to those sectors.

The next frontier for the application of this new material is in the area of health, and the researchers have already begun a series of new investigations that will lead in that direction.  What do you think of this new material?  Discuss in the Adding Quasicrystals to Complex Metal Alloys forum thread on 3DPB.com.

3DPRINT.COM
by  | NOVEMBER 4, 2014

3D printed food for soldiers!

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

Feeling Hungry? Check out what’s on the menu for the future soldiers of America!

http://www.npr.org/…/361187352/army-eyes-3d-printed-food-fo…

Army researchers will try to find ways to 3-D print nutritious food with less heavy packaging than the current military meals.

US Army Eyes 3D Printed Food for Soldiers

Army scientists have spent decades concocting meals that last without refrigeration and survive high-altitude airdrops. And now, the Army is eyeing a new form of cooking: 3-D printing! Yes, food that comes fresh out of a printer, for our troops.

Lauren Oleksyk, a food technologist leading the team at the Army’s Natick research center, lays out the vision.

Imagine soldiers who are strapped, head to toe, with sensors that measure if they’re high or low in potassium or cholesterol.

“We envision to have a 3-D printer that is interfaced with the soldier. And that sensor can deliver information to the computer software,” Oleksyk says. “And then they would be able to have either powdered or liquid matrices that are very nutrient dense, that they have on demand that they can take and eat immediately to fill that need.”

“Liquid matrices” that are nutrient “dense.” And you print them?!

You read that right.

The Army is turning to 3-D printers for many purposes, including a nutrition project — to stamp out the equivalent of PowerBars, but personalized for the battlefield.

The Department of Defense has just approved research funding. And it’s going to take a lot of research. While regular printers put ink on paper, 3-D printers blast liquids and powders into complex shapes. But it’s not clear if printers could mold a solid like carrots — and what would happen to the food’s nutritional value.

“There’s synthetic types of meats, there’s real beef, there’s real meat,” Oleksyk says. “And we would see what that does in the printing process to that protein, whether it’s animal based or plant based.” She’s talking about this research with the MIT Lincoln Lab and NASA too.

Of course, the 3-D food will have to pass a taste test, just like the current rations — which are called MREs, or meals ready to eat.

Oleksyk mailed me a bunch to sample. I try a jalapeno pepper jack-flavored patty. It is full of flavor, and also very processed, like someone had to jam a lot into a little patty.

The kitchens that make this patty use flaming hot ovens and extreme heat to sterilize it. Oleksyk says if 3-D printers could use less heat, the patty could also taste better — less like a compact muscle and more like fresh ground meat.

“We hope so! It’s not being done, so it’s something that we will investigate in our project,” she says.

In the food world, 3-D printing is just getting started — and it’s a sweet start, literally.

Liz von Hasseln is giving me an online video tour of The Sugar Lab, a 3-D printing outfit in Los Angeles that turns sugar into sweet candy sculptures for wedding cakes and fancy cocktails. The startup was acquired by 3D Systems, which is sharing its technology with the military in informal talks.

She points to a printer that’s the size of an industrial photocopier and explains, “What the printer does is, a lot like making frosting in a bowl, it basically adds the wet ingredients of the frosting to the dry ingredients very, very precisely in very fine layers.”

Von Hasseln sent me some samples to try — and they’re very different from the military food. I unwrap a delicate sphere that’s a little bigger than a lollipop. It tastes like Sweet Tarts.

It’s hard for me to imagine this technology producing anything nutritious or durable. But von Hasseln husband, Kyle, co-founder of The Sugar Lab, says the printer’s ability to vary textures — to make food soft or hard — would be critical for soldiers who are injured or on the move.

“Dialing in the exact density of food could mean that they could eat more easily and because of that, as a consequence, they might even eat more or be healthier,” he says.

3-D printed food sounds sci-fi. But according to military scientists and 3-D experts, these meals for soldiers are on track to be ready by 2025.

References:

NPR.ORG
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/11/04/361187352/army-eyes-3d-printed-food-for-soldiers

3D printed replica of Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s Tomb

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

Preserving the Pharoah’s legacy: How 3D printing has to come to the rescue of Tutankamun’s Tomb.

http://www.inside3dp.com/creating-exact-replica-pharaoh-tu…/

3D printing company creates a replica of Tutankhamun’s Tomb

3D printing has come to the rescue of the ancient burial chamber of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The chamber, which is over 3,000 years old, was at risk of collapse and deterioration due to the increased footfall of visitors to the site. But now, thanks to 3D specialists Factum Arte, the whole sanctum of the chamber has been preserved, by way of an indentical 3D replica.

Tutankhamun is undoubtedly the most famous of all the Egyptian kings of the 18th dynasty. His tomb was discovered by Howard Carter and George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon in 1922. The child king ruled during 1332 BC – 1323 BC, and despite being the least revered in Egyptian times, he went on to become the most famous in our times.

After the tomb was discovered, there followed a huge surge of interest in Egyptian culture, and thousands of tourists descended on the tomb, to glimpse into the life of what is now, the world’s best-known Pharaoh. This is partly because the tomb and the artefacts housed within it are amongst some of the best preserved in the world. Ironically this is what has led to the sheer amount of traffic in and out of the chambers, and the whole area is now under threat from the very visitors that once welcomed them.

It was the constant changes, caused by the humidity of the breath and temperature of the visitors that had started to make the paint on the walls crack, and the plaster to fail.

It was decided that if something wasn’t done, the chamber would deteriorate to the point where valuable artifacts would be lost forever. But rather than seal off the chambers, a project to replicate the tomb was agreed and 3D specialists Factum Arte were called in.

Adam Lowe headed up the team from Factum Arte, and using digital photography and three dimensional laser scanning, alongside 3D printers, they managed to recreate the interior of the chambers with stunning accuracy.

The project took five years to complete, not surprising when you consider that laser scanning recorded around 100 million points of information per square meter on the walls, from reading the artwork to recording the cracks in the plaster.

Once the scanning had taken place, the whole chamber was then 3D printed tp reproduce an exact replica of King Tutankhamun’s tomb, and some experts were so blown away with the results that they cried at the unveiling at Luxor:

“We are not talking virtual reality, it is a physical reality. To have an emotional response to something you know to be a copy is an extraordinary moment,” Mr Lowe told The Independent from Egypt.

The site receives around 1,000 visitors per day, and Mr Lowe said that producing the replica meant the original site would be preserved for the future. The tombs he said, “were built to last for eternity but they weren’t built to be visited”.

Mr Lowe said the replica was of crucial importance to the preservation of the original 3,245-year-old burial chamber.

The process of producing the 3D replica of King Tutankhamun’s tomb was flimed by BBC cameras in a docmentary called ‘A New Tomb for Tutankhamun’. The documentary’s producer Joanne Whalley said:

“The tomb walls of the original are very cracked and undulating so the 3D [process] captured the cracks and dips of the surface.”

Presenting the show, Rajan Datar said: “This is the future of cultural tourism. During the past hundred years many antiquities have been exposed to too much human presence and unless that is restricted they are going to collapse completely. The mindset has to change amongst tourists.”

There is also an exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, UK, ‘Discovering Tutankhamun’ will showcase some of Howard Carter’s original records, drawings and photographs. It runs from 24th July to 2nd November 2014.

INSIDE3DP.COM
by Janey Davies | Oct 19 2014 , 11:35:29

Library of 3D printed resources

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

Check out how much 3D printing has to offer for the visually impaired!

http://3dprint.com/19173/librarylyna-3d-print-blind/

3D Printed Model of an Isosceles Triangle

LibraryLyna to Transform STEM Education for Visually Impaired with Library of 3D Printed Resources

With all the hoopla and headlines surrounding 3D printing innovation, it’s also good to get back to basics and focus on the major impact this technology can have in the classrooms–especially in those of the visually impaired.

Educational tools geared specifically toward blind students can improve their quality of life substantially—as well as improving drop-out rates across the board. The team at LibraryLyna is on a mission to create and provide both teacher and student accessibility to these educational tools by ‘hosting the largest collection of high quality educational 3D models to foster learning of the blind and visually impaired.

“Kevin’s simple, practical concept is revolutionary and will transform the education of the blind and visually impaired,” said Marc Ashton, CEO of Foundation for Blind Children.

Currently, according to the census, around 88% of citizens twenty five years and older in the U.S. have attained a high school degree or equivalent, while only 32.2% of visually impaired in the U.S. ages twenty one years and older have a high school diploma or equivalent. While visual status and educational status are not what define a person, anything that can be done to improve either of those issues is nothing but positive.

LibraryLyna 1

Through raising the bar—as well as the texture and dimension of learning tools for the blind,LibraryLyna also hopes to raise enthusiasm levels andexpectations for graduation rates. Many teachers of visually impaired students are left with the frustrating and somewhat heartbreaking task of trying to teach their students while lacking the proper tools, forcing them to try and make homemade resources on their own. This would be a task for teachers instructing students who are not visually impaired, thus understandably making the challenge virtually impossible for TVI’s.

“Many times, it is too difficult to create these models from scratch. We focus on creating and hosting this ‘missing’ educational material,” Kevin Yang, President and Founder of LibraryLyna, told 3DPrint.com. “We are actively trying to level the playing field; maybe with our help, blind students will have the same opportunities as their sighted peers.”

Yang’s father, Dr. Peichun Yang, is the co-founder of LibraryLyna. The senior Yang is a blind engineer and scientist with a Ph.D in Material Science. Having lost his sight seventeen years ago, he has years of knowledge when it comes to technology to aid the visually impaired.

3D Printed Multiplication Table

The young and very bright Kevin Yang does not remember a time when his dad could see, and he sometimes endured great frustration and challenge in trying to explain his creative and interesting ideas to his father. Eventually he was intrigued and inspired by 3D printing because he discovered an excellent method of demonstrating and communicating ideas and designs to the elder Yang.

With this inspiration and motivation, he felt he was given a purpose in life at a young age.

“3D modeling came with a good amount of struggling and frustration, but fortunately the things that I wanted to explain to my dad were simple and geometric, using only basic techniques of 3D design. This technology was a revelation!” says Yang. “After printing a few of my models through 3D printing vendors such as Shapeways and Materialise and giving them to my dad, I didn’t even have to do any explaining.”

It was no fleeting interest or hobby for sure, and in 2013, Polymer Braille Inc. invited Kevin Yang to use 3D design and printing to create a complicated multidimensional concept that would help to explain to blind people the mechanical mechanisms of a braille display.’ This 3D printed display was very inspiring to his father.

“My dad and I put 3D printing on a pedestal, as if it were the holy grail for clear communication,” says Yang.

Kevin and his father both agreed they had the tools together to help visually impaired students, and Yang, after four years in attendance at the National Federation of the Blind Convention, was a presenter regarding the work he had done in the classroom with 3D printing. With the help of the Diagram Center, support from employees at Pearson, and the Foundation for Blind Children, Kevin founded LibraryLyna.

LibraryLyna is working to offer a comprehensive package that gives support to the teachers and students, allowing the teachers to contact LibraryLyna with a specific request for what 3D printed tools they need for lessons, and then LibraryLyna goes to work on getting them what they need, most often through ‘curating pre-existing art.

“We find useful models from websites like Thingiverse, and host them on our website which offers a screen-reader, which is software that blind individuals use to navigate electronic devices,” Yang told 3DPrint.com.“LibraryLyna is taking the initiative to move 3D printing into hands of those who really need it.”

LibraryLyna is working to make sure that classrooms for visually impaired students are thriving, and that teachers never have to worry about finding resources within the inventory of STEM-based 3D printed materials that LibraryLyna will provide them.

“If pictures are worth a thousand words, 3D models should be worth a million words–heck, even a billion,” says Keven Yang.

Have you been involved in 3D printing any items for individuals with handicaps or visual impairment? Tell us about it in the LibraryLyna Forum thread at 3DPB.com.

parts 1

parts 2

3DPRINT.COM
by  | OCTOBER 14, 2014

3D printed headdress!

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

3D printing helps create this headdress that responds to brain activity! 🙂

http://www.inside3dp.com/3d-printed-headdress-shows-brain-a…

3D printed headdress maps thoughts with color. Credit - Sensoree

3D printed headdress shows your brain activity

It looks like you’ve come straight out of the shower and have forgotten to rinse your head after shampooing, but it’s far more fascinating than that. A fashion designer has created a 3D printed headdress that indicates what parts of your brain are working, by flashing different colors and sectors.

NEUROTiQ is the brainchild of fashion designer Kristin Neidlinger, the founder of SENSOREE, who used 3D printing with EEG brain sensors to create this unusual head attire.

A 3D printed brain animating accessory

Neidlinger calls NEUROTiQ a ‘brain animating fashion item’, as it maps your thoughts and then translates them into different colors. For instance, red indicates deep sleep, orange shows a meditative state, and consciousness is yellow-green. A combined color display of blue, purple and red displays indicate multi-sensory gamma brain activity.

SENSOREE specialize in creating wearable technology with a difference. Their designs often include bio.media, which reveals something about the wearer that they themselves might not be aware of communicating.

Futuristic materials

To create these designs, Neidlinger chose futuristic materials and typically embeds them with bio sensory technology. This not only provides an emotionally based creation controlled by our bodies, but allows others to be aware of our most intimate feelings.

3D printed neuron globules embedded with bio.media . Credit: Sensoree

“I love materials,” Neidlinger told 3DPrint.com, “I am a tactile enthusiast and have always loved the qualities of textures and structures of shape. The NeurotiQ was my first work with 3D printing. It was a grand experiment with materials. Currently, 3D prints are solid objects and it is challenging to find comfort and movement on the body. The fashions are more like armor.”

Mapping the inner workings of the human brain

The headdress itself has been 3D printed as a knitted design, which could been seen as representing the complicated pattern of neurons and synapses within our own brain structure. Embedded within the 3D knit are small light points that respond to Emotiv Epoc EEG brain sensors called neuron globules.

There are 14 of these LED 3D printed globules, which once embedded into the nylon ‘wool’, then had to be hand knitted into the headdress. This, as you can imagine, was not simple task, and took 102 hours to complete.

“To make the forms flexible, I thought to combine traditional hand craft of knitting with the new technology of 3D printing,” said Neidlinger. “3D printing offers sculptural detail that is so fantastically intricate. I love the fact that you can dream up any design and make it tangible. The possibilities seem so vast – from designing jewelry to automated space stations, so why not space station jewelry? I am especially fond of working with Formlab’s Form 1 3D printer. The resolution is so fine and the resin has a nice capture of light. So far we are delighted and cannot wait to see what will happen on the runway!”

3D printed fashion fads?

MACHINIC, a San Francisco based digital prototyping and consulting company, helped Neidlinger with her NEUROTiQ headdress. Her colleagues at SENSOREE Grant Patterson and Nathan Tucker also lent a hand.

What's next for 3D printed fashion? Credit: Sensoree

The headdress made its debut at New York Fashion Week, where it was accompanied by other 3D printed designs, including several 3D printed dresses.

As for wearable technology, it appears that we are now becoming obsessed with creating items of clothing that reveal more than we could possibly say on any social media site. But when will it be enough, and is anyone apart from ourselves actually that interested?

inside3dp.com

by Janey Davies | Sep 26 2014 , 09:00:50