Amongst the sad Keanu Reeves figurines and modified vacuum cleaner parts, additive manufacturing is also stepping in to solve some major medical problems in ways no one predicted it would. Similar to how Makerbot and RepRap managed to cut the cost of desktop rapid prototyping, Philadelphia-based startup BioBots has been focusing their efforts on radically…
Comedian Lewis Black once said that the problem with Treadmills was that ‘it seems to me when you’re running and you’re done, you should be somewhere else.’ Well now we have a solution…and it comes in the form of the Treadmill bike. From a distance, onlookers appear to see someone slowly moonwalking forward, traveling rapidly at high…
Enabled by new developments in 3D Printing and Computer Vision, footwear design company SOLS has been trying to tackle the area of orthopedics to make it easier for everyone to get around. Over the weekend, the company released it’s new ADAPTIV footwear – a conceptual project that allows the footwear designs to rapidly adapt shape…
Dutch Supermarket chain Albert Hejin (AH XL) have taken it upon themselves to create a user-facing kiosk and a customized chocolate 3D printer to allow customers to make cake designs on the fly. The Dutch always strike me as one of the few countries that like living on the bleeding edge of the Future. Don’t worry…
For those Fablabs, Design Studios and active hobbyists, filament buying becomes a part of the rite of being there. Instead of having to rely on timing orders right or hitting up the hobby shop to make sure you have enough filament and tools, there’s Protocrate. Described as a “part-Filament of the Month club, part-DIY project…
We’ve seen quite the gamut of 3D printers come out of the crowdfunding space, and although many have been able to take off successfully, few have really been able to hit the jackpot and sustain long after their campaign ended. CEL Robox has been one of the exceptions, releasing new software, finding new partners and so far have…
It’s one of the most unusual things that Autodesk has ever done – a software company making hardware products – and now you can get your hands on it. Precise, Sleek and Open-Source, the Ember was created to be a 3D Printer for everyone so anyone can easily physicalize models via Autodesk’s very own Spark Platform and…
For those living in the Northern Hemisphere, we are currently encased in the harsh grip of Winter and thus, bound to the grueling duty of snow-shoveling. The natural inclination is to say, “how can I build an awesome robot to do this instead?” Well, Ryan ‘Moo Spyker’ of the famously frozen St. Paul, MN, has been building…
Hold onto your hats! The Hasso-Plattner-Institut, near Berlin, Germany, has just released ‘a simple self-contained appliance that allows teleporting inanimate physical objects across distance’ by the name of Scotty (as in, “Beam me up”). Starting with a few Makerbot Replicators, they added a 3-axis milling machine, a camera, an encryption/tranmission system to enable teleportation of objects. Unlike…
I was sipping a hot coffee and Ding! An email from GrabCAD pops into my email this morning. A very unexpected email. “I have some great news – Workbench is now free!” Hardi Meybaum, CEO of GrabCAD says in the email. Workbench is GrabCAD’s highly rated, browser-based model management and collaboration software that was selling…
One of the principal problems on living far away from home is doing the most with less. No, I am not equating living on Mars to your first year at college, eating Ketchup Sandwiches to stay alive. Getting to Mars is not easy, and if you can build ‘the most’ with the least amount of tools and…
Witnessed by hundreds of millions of viewers, the dancing sharks at Katy Perry’s Half-time show got a lot more attention than expected. Poor Left Shark – have you ever had to make your moves while wearing that kind of suit? Inspired by the effort, ‘Political Artist’ Fernando Sosa modeled his own version and placed it on…
In the annals of getting-things-made, there have been two distinct approaches that have become apparent in the past two years. One is the classic Shapeways/Ponoko approach (or B2C), which depends on a company owning digital fabrication machines and putting all of the models on one build plate and shipping it to you and/or having a…
Nendo, one of the best Japanese design studios of late, have taken to chocolate yet again and created a few bonbons that truly go outside the norm. After having their way with reinventing rubber-bands, cakes and chopsticks, they applied their inimitable style by coercing the chocolate into unusual geometric forms. I feel like it would be a crime…
Vacuum tubes are still an incredibly niche thing and are commonly associated with Grandmas, your friend Hipster Dan and Satellite communication. For most signal processing and amplification methods, the mighty transistor kills it; consuming less power, creating less heat and is able to be squeezed into the tightest of compartments. However, that doesn’t mean tubes…
With every great idea, Seed investment can go a long way towards turning it into an actual and great product. While crowdfunding has only been around for close to a decade, it has been the primary proving ground for testing ideas and turning out products that can end up becoming sustaining businesses. Some may argue…
Why is it that the kids get cooler toys than the adults nowadays? Because they’re EDUCATIONAL. MySTEMkits.com just launched on Kickstarter today, offering you and your offspring the chance to learn a few more things about nearly everything that’s cool. Boasting dozens of kits covering topics from biology to design to applied math, mySTEMkits is another…
Today on Indiegogo 3DRacers launched their new RC racecar package. Using an online editor, you can create your own design and add features to make your racecar to crush all competition. Edit, download, print and assemble. Using a smartphone app, you can take your racecar round the track like the Stig that you are. Silent and unknown to the…
At only 12.7 MB, this new CAD package packs a punch! Although it may come with a bit of a steep learning curve, Monolith enables users to vary the quantity of multiple materials on a voxel-by-voxel basis. New 3D Printing technologies – such as those seen in Stratasys’ Objet multi-material 3D printers – allow the…
If you thought combining Keyboards and guitars was a neat way to spend your Saturdays, then you best prepare yourself. The KeyMouse is the brainchild of two brothers from Utah who have brought together a mouse and keyboard into a complete and final product. The concept was crafted to solve a common problem seen amongst…
Like most other things these days, digital fabrication is disconnecting from your computer and leaving it for the Cloud. The concept of it is fairly simple: connect a dongle to your 3D Printer and enable the user to control it using an online platform for printing, content creation and sharing, among others. This is exactly…
Brace yourselves – this is actually a pretty big deal. Last week, researchers out of the University of Rochester used laser etching methods to create unique patterns that made metal surfaces extremely hydrophobic i.e. water-repellant. Unlike chemical treatments like Teflon-coatings or Ultra-Ever Dry, they claim that this material is much more rugged and long-lasting. In…
One long-standing user problem for 3D content creators has been in turning 2D images into 3D models, as we have the tools of photography within our grasp at all times but fewer tools for 3D capture. Smoothie-3D, a new and free modeling tool, doesn’t automatically turn 2D images into 3D models, however it gives a…
With an 80 cent piezo buzzer, tungsten wire and some spare MDF, Dan Berard has managed to build an working Scanning Tunneling Microscope that can image whole atomic structures. Arthur C. Clarke once said that any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic… …my variation would be “any sufficiently advanced technology made in your house…
Although there’s an overwhelming amount of column inches expended on consumer 3D Printing, there are some substantial movements in the Industrial 3D Printing World. Fabrisonic has been one of the most interesting and perhaps most stealthy after having developed a unique additive manufacturing method on a large-scale with large implications for design and engineering. Leveraging better…
Magic Leap. It’s … something. Variously described as a 3D TV, Augmented Reality device or a Virtual Reality device like Oculus Rift, it’s been confirmed via leaks and patents that it is something much crazier. The description by Snow Crash author and Magic Leap’s Chief Futurist Neal Stephenson is telling, “Magic Leap is mustering an arsenal of techniques —…
WinSun, the Chinese firm that managed to one-up the competition in mega-scale 3D Printing have recently released a new set of pictures that highlight their latest large-scale structures. These humungous one-story to six-story buildings were printed using specially-formulated extruded cement, which were each made in separate pieces and lifted into place. None of the pieces, from what…
For our readers who might have little ones running around playing engineer or designer, we noticed something on Adafruit.com that quite frankly…we couldn’t help but share. Departing from the standard fare of coloring books, which usually includes ‘Dinosaurs’, ‘Dora the Explorer’ and ‘Farm Animals’, R is for Robot invites children to color-in illustrations of Jacquard…
Does anybody know anything about handrail clamps? PDM/Engineering Community GrabCAD just announced that they are doing a Design Challenge with NASA, asking the World to come up with a Handrail Clamp Assembly that will be 3D Printed on the ISS for use. Yes! The challenge is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (well, hopefully not) to bust out…
Confirming rumors, SpaceX has announced that they will be receiving a hefty $900 million investment from Google to help push the internet into orbit with a myriad of satellites. At a valuation of $12 billion, Google would hold roughly 7.5% in the burgeoning space company, joining existing investors including Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Valor Equity Partners and…
American Wrench and William “Iron Bill” Shatner have teamed up to create the Rivet, a type of vehicle they have called a ‘Landjet’. “Designed from the ground up as a 3 wheeled vehicle, with its exposed cockpit and command center, seating fit only for a captain and the harmonious roar of its brute V8, piloting Rivet…
Morphi is a free iPad app that allows users to quickly design and print items using touch alone; targeting younger people to inspire interest in design for all things 3D and artists/designers interested in taking a new approach. Back in June 2014, we covered their first release and we’re fairly impressed with Morphi’s powerful set of…
Commonly seen in Hinduism, Buddhism and Phish concerts, mandalas are usually made of colorful threads or even sand in overwhelmingly complex patterns to express a religious reverence for the infinite beauty of the Cosmos. More recently, Italian artist Leonardo Ulian has been putting a very different spin on the age-old tradition by soldering capacitors, ICs and…
We’ve been hearing quite a bit about Simplify3D, a complete software package for slicing 3D models for printing. With features like simulated slicing (to see where printing might be a problem), Mesh-repair, oodles of pre-configured settings for different machines, tutorials and a very active community, hobbyists and prosumers can count on Simplify3D for an easier…
Two years in, Google Glass has generated a lot of debate but very few sales. Yesterday, Google announced that it is ending sales of its consumer ‘Explorer’ model, amid leadership restructuring and a new focus on Enterprise solutions. This was not how it was supposed to be: Glass was created to revolutionize how we mere mortals…
Have you ever thought to yourself, “3D Printing is cool, but there’s got to be a better way of making XYZ”? Of course you have…and now you can win a 3D printer just by sharing your concept. 3D printing community and content library Youmagine is inviting everyone to pitch their own ideas for a new way…
Senvol has been a company on our radar for the past two years. Started by Wharton grads Zach Simkins and Annie Wang, Senvol’s original intention was to help companies find uses for 3D Printing outside of just rapid prototyping, identifying uses like producing discontinued OEM parts or finding parts that could be more cheaply manufactured…
It’s always interesting when a controversial company buys another controversial company. What does this mean? Will they be Controversial2? Today, 3D Systems announced that they have purchased 3D Printing company BotObjects, a UK-based company best known for two things: FDM 3D Printing in full, real-color and also being accused of consumer fraud and not delivering…
Electronics 3D Printing, which combines your standard Additive Manufacturing and elements of PCB prototyping, came one step closer to your cluttered desktop. Voxel8 just released to CES 2015 an amazing video demonstrating their first commercial product, showing off how it can 3D Print plastic and conductive ink traces, allowing anyone to create a completely integrated product.…
The Internet of Things. We all know that having an iPhone-controlled thermostat or a Wifi-capable pacemaker is the future, but is it safe? Like all things connected to the World Wide Web, it can be hacked quicker than you can say “Sony Pictures”…and if you don’t want Kim Jong-Un access to your Refrigerator, take some…
Imagine cleaning yourself with only 5 liters of water. That’s just over a gallon – and no, it doesn’t have to be a big bucket for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Nor do you need to use a sponge. This is the total water consumption of the plainly-named Shower of the Future, created by Orbital Systems out…
When our electronics give up the ghost, or simply become obsolete, we usually bid farewell by dumping them unceremoniously in the garbage or recycling bins. For a few of us, it’s a bit like throwing away a partly-eaten chicken salad – someone could do with that food energy! Because the same goes for electronics -…
They say vinyl produces the best sounding reproduction of music. It’s a big debate that seems to run in circles again and again. Get it? Well we can settle one question I’ve always had: I can burn a CD, and I can make a tape. But why can’t I make my own Vinyl records? Well look…
When one considers a fine, exploded blueprint of a mechanical device, do they really consider the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into it? Usually no, since no really appreciates the difficulty of creating correctly-surfaced timing cams and turbine blades. Japanese Artist Atsushi Koyama does, painting ghostly arms and hands and putting them to…
Removing 3D Prints. It ain’t easy. FDM 3D Printing requires that the first layers adhere to something, but of course, that something has to be not coated with superglue. Because nothing says “I suck at this” than giving your Girlfriend a bracelet that is either broken or firmly attached to the printbed. For this reason, there is the…
Out in Calverton, NY, placed at the very end of Long Island, Graphene 3D Labs have been working on a rather novel idea. A 3D Printed Battery. Unlike about 4/5th of innovations that have headlines like ‘3D Printed [insert common household item that could be cheaply injection molded anyways], this one has much more interesting…
3D Printing has been lauded as the next way to bring jobs back to America and the rest of the West by the Economist and other intellectual luminaries like Glenn Beck (cough cough). CAD-to-Print technologies combined with geographic proximity to the buyer has been summed up as the solution to what some call “the China…
Researchers at the State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University have been experimenting with 3D printing since 1995. And just recently they announced that they had printed a huge 3 meter wingspar out of titanium, strong enough to meet standards for aerospace use. Colour us impressed – to my knowledge, no one has created…
What if you could feel your profile. Like, touch that data, man! Well, yes you can. The Creator’s Project (a partnership betweeen Intel and Vice Magazine) have been working with Shapeways to offer you a way of combining your likes, your friends and your pictures to create models that can be printed off. Do you remember Geoids? Now you…
At CES 2013, 3D Systems announced the release of Cubify Capture, which allows users to take a video or photo and turn it into an actual 3D-printable model. Over the past 9 months, 3D Systems has been trying to turn Cubify into a powerful cloud-based environment for not just downloading of files (for purchase), but…