3D printed smartwatch

Posted on by aneczka2307

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20150817-8-year-old-child-develops-3d-printed-smartwatch-kit-for-kids-to-learn-coding-and-3d-printing.html

8-year-old child develops 3D printed smartwatch kit for kids to learn coding and 3D printing

Due to the successes of the ever expanding maker revolution, it’s becoming more and more evident that 3D printers and basic programming need to be integrated into schools to prepare children for their future. Its therefore fantastic to see that children are already picking up making themselves. Just look at the eight-year-old aspiring programmer and maker Omkar Govil-Nair, who has already developed his very own 3D printed O Watch smartwatch and plans to make it available everywhere through a crowdfunding campaign.

Now we sometimes come across inspiring children who are so quickly and easily taking up programming and 3D printing, but few are as successful as Omkar. Like most eight-year-olds, he will be starting fourth grade this year and loves Star Wars, James Bond and badminton. But unlike most, he also loves working with Arduinos and 3D printing. ‘I got interested in electronics and programming 3 years back when I attended my 2nd Maker Faire. I was inspired by Quin Etnyre then the 12 year old CEO of Qtechknow. Since then I wanted to make my own product,’ he explains about his fascination.

But more than doing just a bit of tinkering, he has actually developed this cool-looking O Watch, an Arduino-based programmable smartwatch that is intended to give kids a bit of experience with programming and 3D design. Planning to bring this cool watch to market, it will come with a complete set of components that can be used to build the watch yourself and customize it with 3D printed cases and colorful straps.

As Omkar explained to 3ders.org, he was inspired by all the buzz around smartwatches. ‘I wanted one for myself. I was doing some Arduino project and decided to make my watch using Arduino compatible components. I thought it will be great if other kids can also make their own watches and that is how the idea was created. I always wanted to have my own company after I read about Quin Etnyre of Qtechnow and met him at Maker Faire in 2014, so looking to launch a crowd funding project,’ he explains. ‘I want to make this kit available with easy-to-use web instructions for other kids like me to make their own smartwatches and learn 3D printing and programming.’

As he goes on to explain, the O Watch is essentially an Arduino IDE build intended for basic use through four buttons. ‘You can program it using Arduino IDE. You can program it to function as a watch with date and time functions from Arduino, you can make games and apps and with the sensor board model you can also measure temperature, humidity, pressure as well as make a compass,’ he says. An integrated color OLED screen and a LiPo batter finishes the kit. One example that the boy already made is a rock-paper-scissors app, illustrating that it is a perfect option for learning some basic programming.

What’s more, Omkar did a lot of the work himself and the rest with the help from his dad. ‘I started learning 3D design using Sketchup about 6 months back with help from my dad and Sketchup video tutorials,’ he explains. They then started designs for a case about five months ago, with an eye on the Bay Area Maker Faire. ‘We tried several designs and printed many versions before we got the basic working model we used for the Maker Faire in May. After that we further improved it a bit to make the edges rounded,’ he explains. All 3D printed parts were completed on a Printrbot Simple Metal and in PLA, with a case taking anywhere between twenty and forty-five minutes to 3D print depending on the settings used.

This fun and impressive watch looks perfect for educational purposes, so it’s fantastic to hear that Omkar and his dad are also planning a crowdfunding campaign, which is set to launch later this month. The specific goal will be to raise funds for further improving designs and developing templates that can be easily used by children for customization and 3D printing options. The father and son duo are also aiming to develop two kits: one with the basic O Watch, and the second with an additional sensor board with a wide range of sensors for more build options. In short, plenty to keep an eye on. You can find the O Watch website here.

3ders.org

by Alec | Aug 17, 2015

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20150817-8-year-old-child-develops-3d-printed-smartwatch-kit-for-kids-to-learn-coding-and-3d-printing.html

3D printing helped with facial defect

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

3D Printing Has Another Positive Impact on a Child’s Life

http://goo.gl/3GZNgy

How 3D-Printing Helped A Little Girl With A Rare Facial Defect

Check out this excellent story about a little girl named Violet born with a rare defect, a Tessier facial cleft, that left a fissure in her skull, and how 3D-printing is helping doctors take on these kinds of complicated surgeries. The piece is in today’s The New York Times and written by health reporter and CommonHealth contributor Karen Weintraub, who offers a little background:

Violet Pietrok was born nearly two years ago without a nose. Her eyes were set so far apart that her mom compared her vision to a bird of prey’s. There was a gap in the skull behind her forehead.

There was no question she would need drastic surgery to lead a normal life. But few surgeons have seen patients with problems as complex as Violet’s. Her parents, Alicia Taylor and Matt Pietrok, who live near Salem, Oregon, brought her to Boston Children’s Hospital, to Dr. John Meara, who had operated before on kids with Tessier facial clefts.

As part of Children’s Pediatric Simulator Program, Meara was able to get several 3D printed models made of Violet’s skull. By handling and slicing up the models, he got a better sense of what had gone wrong and how best to fix it.

Such 3D-printing is becoming more commonplace in complex surgeries, allowing doctors views and knowledge they can’t get on their screens.

From the Times story:

Such 3-D-printed models are transforming medical care, giving surgeons new perspectives and opportunities to practice, and patients and their families a deeper understanding of complex procedures. Hospitals are also printing training tools and personalized surgical equipment. Someday, doctors hope to print replacement body parts.

“There’s no doubt that 3-D printing is going to be disruptive medicine,” said Dr. Frank J. Rybicki, chief of medical imaging at the Ottawa Hospital and chairman and professor of radiology at the University of Ottawa. He is the former director of the applied imaging science lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a few blocks from Boston Children’s.

“It makes procedures shorter, it improves your accuracy,” said Dr. Rybicki, who has used 3-D printing in his work with face transplants. “When bioprinting actually hits, it will change everything.”

For now, the printer extrudes a layer of liquid plastic instead of ink. It adds a second layer, and then another, and a skull or rib cage — or whatever the surgeon dials up — slowly emerges.

The same process can also print layers of human cells. So far, researchers have also printed blood vessels, simple organs and bits of bone.

COMMONHEALTH.WBUR.ORG
by Rachel Zimmerman | January 27, 2015 1:53 PM

3D printed car models from children’s sketches

Posted on by Malta 3D Printing

Breathing Life Into Simple Sketches: A Japanese Company is Making Every Child’s Dream Come True!

http://3dprint.com/32854/3d-printed-cars-kids-designs/

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Japanese Company 3D Prints Amazingly Unique Working Car Models from Children’s Sketches

The future of 3D printing lies in the hands of our youth. It will be today’s school-aged children who grow up understanding the concepts behind 3D modeling and 3D printing better than most of us who are currently employed in the workforce. Hopefully with 3D printing curricula in schools, and a growing understanding that the technology holds tremendous potential, our children will be the ones to really reap the rewards of the technology. It will be these same children who will be working for the companies that do for 3D printing what the Googles, Apples, and IBMs did for personal computing.

In Japan, 3D printing is beginning to really take off. One company, called t-o-f-u design, understands the importance of teaching children about this technology. In collaboration with Inter-Culture, at the 2014 Maker Faire in Tokyo, t-o-f-udecided to try something very unique, when it comes to 3D printing. They allowed 11 children, between the ages of 4 and 8 years old, to design a side view of a car that they would like to have fabricated on a 3D printer. They were merely asked to draw a profile of a vehicle from one side, and then t-o-f-u and company were to do the rest.

 

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“We are actually full time car designers [for a] major Japanese car company,” Park tells 3DPrint.com. “We created this design unit to create fun and meaningful educational workshops for kids and also to do more collaboration projects with other creative talents. It is part of our learning experience as well.”

Using Autodesk Alias, t-o-f-u was able to create digital 3D models of the kids’ cars. They then had INTER-CULTURE 3D print the designs using a 3D Systems Sinterstation HiQ. Once the cars were 3D printed, the kids were then asked to color them using special markers.

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The end result? 11 separate 3D printed cars that featured moving wheels, and an individuality about them only possible via 3D printing. The cars, which were exhibited at the Tokyo Maker Faire, garnered quite the attention from show attendees.

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The children were also able to push their cars around a track to see just how fast they could go.

“Since we made only a one course race track, we could not race them, but all the cars drive perfectly,” explained Park. “So we had [the kids] drive them one by one, and they were super excited to see their own designed cars moving!”

Now with this project complete, t-o-f-u is looking toward future projects, including collaboration with other large 3D printing companies. Park tells us that they are in talks with Materialise Japan, and they are in the process of working on another kids design workshop that will take place in the middle of January.

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What do you think about this unique way of using 3D printing to get kids involved with and excited about the technology? Discuss in the 3D printed kids cars forumthread on 3DPB.com.

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3DPRINT.COM
by  | DECEMBER 23, 2014