Here’s an interesting early arrival in the coming boom of 3D printing. The Dubai-based company Precise Concepts is offering a service called This Is Me, which sells 3D scanned and 3D printed copies of yourself. A 6-inch, full color statue costs about $300 – $400 USD, which they scan and print off-site. The statues are made of a plastic resin with full-color print, relatively realistic phototexturing. (via Noah Raford » 3D Printing in the Mall: A Sign of Things to Come)
Pop-upView Separately

Here’s an interesting early arrival in the coming boom of 3D printing.
The Dubai-based company Precise Concepts is offering a service called This Is Me, which sells 3D scanned and 3D printed copies of yourself.
A 6-inch, full color statue costs about $300 – $400 USD, which they scan and print off-site. The statues are made of a plastic resin with full-color print, relatively realistic phototexturing.
(via Noah Raford » 3D Printing in the Mall: A Sign of Things to Come)

Source: news.noahraford.com

3D Printing Pivotal to Forbidden City Extreme Makeover

The Forbidden City has—at least to Western eyes— been shrouded in mystery over the course of its almost-600-year history, and the headlines it’s making today tell a classic tale, not only of East meeting West, but of Old meeting New. It turns out, the Forbidden City is about to undergo an extreme home makeover of monumental proportions but, instead of construction crews, the renovators will be using 3D printers.

This is yet another symbolic push in favor of the 3D technology - another technology which seems to be sneeking up on the world, not from the traditional business and industrial logic, but from the crafts area as well as from the bottom-up DIY/innovation world. It seems somewhat similar to how the Internet early on was ignored by the businesses but grew exponentially in a world of connected hackers and enthusiasts. 

No Joke: These Guys Created A Machine For Printing Houses On The Moon By Tim Maly, fastcodesign.com We find it difficult not to be deliriously excited about this. Paging Newt! There is very lit­tle that’s easy about moon col­o­niza­tion. One of the big­ger prob­lems is set­ting up our hypo­thet­i­cal future colonists with liv­ing quar­ters. Th…
Pop-upView Separately

No Joke: These Guys Created A Machine For Printing Houses On The Moon
By Tim Maly, fastcodesign.com

We find it difficult not to be deliriously excited about this. Paging Newt!

There is very lit­tle that’s easy about moon col­o­niza­tion. One of the big­ger prob­lems is set­ting up our hypo­thet­i­cal future colonists with liv­ing quar­ters. Th…

83 year-old woman got 3D printed mandible The Zen Cart™ Team and others, adafruit.com The Uni­ver­si­ty of Has­selt (Bel­gium) announced today that Bel­gian and Dutch sci­en­tists have suc­cess­ful­ly replac­ing a lower jaw with a 3D print­ed model for a 83 year-old woman. Accord­ing to the researchers, It is the first custom-made… It interesting to note the unique advantages 3d print seems to have in some areas - in this case replicating something unique in short time. I would bet that it is much cheaper than alternative methods as well.
View Separately

83 year-old woman got 3D printed mandible
The Zen Cart™ Team and others, adafruit.com

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Has­selt (Bel­gium) announced today that Bel­gian and Dutch sci­en­tists have suc­cess­ful­ly replac­ing a lower jaw with a 3D print­ed model for a 83 year-old woman. Accord­ing to the researchers, It is the first custom-made…

It interesting to note the unique advantages 3d print seems to have in some areas - in this case replicating something unique in short time. I would bet that it is much cheaper than alternative methods as well.

The future of 3D printing

Who will get the biggest slice of 3D-printed pie? | Crave - CNET

MakerBot’s Bre Pettis says his 3D printers are for everyone. 3D Systems’ Cathy Lewis begs to differ. 

Source: CNET

Why 3-D Printing Will Go the Way of Virtual Reality - Technology Review This isn’t just premature, it’s absurd. 3-D printing, like VR before it, is one of those technologies that suggest a trend of long and steep adoption driven by rapid advances on the systems we have now. And granted, some of what’s going on at present is pretty cool—whether it’s in rapid prototyping, solid-fuel rockets, bio-assembly or just giant plastic showpieces. But the notion that 3-D printing will on any reasonable time scale become a “mature” technology that can reproduce all the goods on which we rely is to engage in a complete denial of the complexities of modern manufacturing, and, more to the point, the challenges of working with matter. […] Hype is inevitably followed by some level of backlash, or at least disinterest, and it would be a shame for 3-D printing to head into a too-deep trough of the Gartner hype cycle. There will be plenty of interesting applications for 3-D printing, but I’ll bet the ones that will have the biggest impact will be within traditional factories, where rapid prototyping is already having a huge impact. I believe this is right. That is why it is interesting to try to look where 3D print might have a unique advantage. Following Bruce Sterlings early insights about this I think one of these possible areas are places on the planet where they don’t have access to factories yet, but is in need of things – many cheap, small but specialized things like e g spare parts for important machines. Update: Ian Pearson commented on Twitter on this post by noting that 3D print will create a great digital craft industry, which I agree with. And that is a whole interesting area in itself since a whole new craft area will most likely redefine how we relate to design and production. Maybe not for everything but for the things that are perceived to be special and we really like and have emotional relations.
Pop-upView Separately

Why 3-D Printing Will Go the Way of Virtual Reality - Technology Review

This isn’t just premature, it’s absurd. 3-D printing, like VR before it, is one of those technologies that suggest a trend of long and steep adoption driven by rapid advances on the systems we have now. And granted, some of what’s going on at present is pretty cool—whether it’s in rapid prototyping, solid-fuel rockets, bio-assembly or just giant plastic showpieces.
But the notion that 3-D printing will on any reasonable time scale become a “mature” technology that can reproduce all the goods on which we rely is to engage in a complete denial of the complexities of modern manufacturing, and, more to the point, the challenges of working with matter.

[…]

Hype is inevitably followed by some level of backlash, or at least disinterest, and it would be a shame for 3-D printing to head into a too-deep trough of the Gartner hype cycle. There will be plenty of interesting applications for 3-D printing, but I’ll bet the ones that will have the biggest impact will be within traditional factories, where rapid prototyping is already having a huge impact.

I believe this is right. That is why it is interesting to try to look where 3D print might have a unique advantage. Following Bruce Sterlings early insights about this I think one of these possible areas are places on the planet where they don’t have access to factories yet, but is in need of things – many cheap, small but specialized things like e g spare parts for important machines.

Update: Ian Pearson commented on Twitter on this post by noting that 3D print will create a great digital craft industry, which I agree with. And that is a whole interesting area in itself since a whole new craft area will most likely redefine how we relate to design and production. Maybe not for everything but for the things that are perceived to be special and we really like and have emotional relations.

Source: technologyreview.com

The Pirate Bay - The galaxy's most resilient bittorrent site

We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical. We believe that things like three dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby future you will print your spare sparts for your vehicles. You will download your sneakers within 20 years.

A new category on Pirate Bay to download 3D objects…

emergentfutures: Introducing The MakerBot Replicator™ The MakerBot Replicator™ is the ultimate personal 3D printer, with MakerBot Dualstrusion™ (2-color printing) and a bigger printing footprint, giving you the superpower to print things See the press Release at Makerbot Paul Higgins: me want one but will probably have to wait.
Pop-upView Separately

emergentfutures:

Introducing The MakerBot Replicator™


The MakerBot Replicator™ is the ultimate personal 3D printer, with MakerBot Dualstrusion™ (2-color printing) and a bigger printing footprint, giving you the superpower to print things

See the press Release at Makerbot

Paul Higgins: me want one but will probably have to wait.

Source: emergentfutures

Where does 3D printing and species protection intersect? Hermit crabs, apparently. Makerbot Industries, who make do-it-yourself 3D printers, launched Project Shellter last Tuesday. Project Shellter intends to leverage the Makerbot community’s design talent and network of 5,000 3D printers to design and produce shells for hermit crabs who face a species threatening, man-made housing shortage. Hmm, sounds familiar. (via Shareable: 3D Printing Community to Crowdsource Saving a Species)
View Separately
Where does 3D printing and species protection intersect? Hermit crabs, apparently. Makerbot Industries, who make do-it-yourself 3D printers, launched Project Shellter last Tuesday. Project Shellter intends to leverage the Makerbot community’s design talent and network of 5,000 3D printers to design and produce shells for hermit crabs who face a species threatening, man-made housing shortage. Hmm, sounds familiar.

(via Shareable: 3D Printing Community to Crowdsource Saving a Species)

Source: shareable.net

shapeways: 3D Printed Stradivarius violin by EOS The quality of 3D printing is rapidly getting better. Maybe so much better that we will get caught in the raise towards higher and higher quality. But that might be a serious mistake. There are (at least) four other dimensions that is much more important to note when thinking about where 3d printing might take us in the future: Fills the basic but enormous global needs of relatively simple objects - From a global perspective the greatest need for things is not the need for advanced and complicated things like Stradivarius violins or electron microscopes but more small and mundane things like cogs, wrenches or gaskets that is needed for maintaining or developing the irrigation equipment that is needed for producing food. What 3d printers is on it’s way of doing is potentially give the people of the planet the access to the spare parts and daily practical tools that is needed to help themselves and fight poverty. Redefines the distribution and personalization of products - Traditionally a product is produced in a factory and distributed over long distances through a complex web of transportation modes and storages. What might happen in the short term is that if production can be performed in a basically unmanned printer locally, and with no extra effort can produce a personalized product in a way which is more complicated to do in a traditional mass production facilities, large parts of the distribution and production structures might be bypassed for a long row of small products. Another aspect for trade is that trade agreements and regulations potentially will be bypassed since the current ways of limiting import of products is by border controls wheree customs personal looks for physical objects. Blurs borders between ideas and physical things - Since we have been living in a world of physical things, our thinking, habits and rules are defined for physical objects. We have e g decided that certain things are illegal or heavily regulated since they are potentially dangerous if spreading in an uncontrolled way. Guns and certain drug manufacturing equipment are examples of such regulated physical objects. What if everybody everywhere can download or draw and then print out those objects on their personal 3d printer? Should ideas and sketches of illegal physical objects also be illegal? When the border between the physical object and the idea of the physical object blurs, we will have unprecedented and conceptually really difficult challenges. Breaks down the current model of factories and value chains - What is becoming possible with 3d printing in the longer term is the transformation of one object into another without the need of a factory. That means that if you have an empty plastic bottle you could use a 3d printer to transform it into things like a required spare part, a wrench or a shoe. Or if you have a pair of childrens shoes which becomes too small, why not scan them in a 3d scanner, reuse the material of the old shoes (and maybe add some material from the empty plastic bottle) and print out a pair of identical shoes in a larger size. All without the need of a factory, distribution chain and a shoe store.
Pop-upView Separately

shapeways:

3D Printed Stradivarius violin by EOS

The quality of 3D printing is rapidly getting better. Maybe so much better that we will get caught in the raise towards higher and higher quality. But that might be a serious mistake.

There are (at least) four other dimensions that is much more important to note when thinking about where 3d printing might take us in the future:

  1. Fills the basic but enormous global needs of relatively simple objects - From a global perspective the greatest need for things is not the need for advanced and complicated things like Stradivarius violins or electron microscopes but more small and mundane things like cogs, wrenches or gaskets that is needed for maintaining or developing the irrigation equipment that is needed for producing food. What 3d printers is on it’s way of doing is potentially give the people of the planet the access to the spare parts and daily practical tools that is needed to help themselves and fight poverty.
  2. Redefines the distribution and personalization of products - Traditionally a product is produced in a factory and distributed over long distances through a complex web of transportation modes and storages. What might happen in the short term is that if production can be performed in a basically unmanned printer locally, and with no extra effort can produce a personalized product in a way which is more complicated to do in a traditional mass production facilities, large parts of the distribution and production structures might be bypassed for a long row of small products. Another aspect for trade is that trade agreements and regulations potentially will be bypassed since the current ways of limiting import of products is by border controls wheree customs personal looks for physical objects.
  3. Blurs borders between ideas and physical things - Since we have been living in a world of physical things, our thinking, habits and rules are defined for physical objects. We have e g decided that certain things are illegal or heavily regulated since they are potentially dangerous if spreading in an uncontrolled way. Guns and certain drug manufacturing equipment are examples of such regulated physical objects. What if everybody everywhere can download or draw and then print out those objects on their personal 3d printer? Should ideas and sketches of illegal physical objects also be illegal? When the border between the physical object and the idea of the physical object blurs, we will have unprecedented and conceptually really difficult challenges.
  4. Breaks down the current model of factories and value chains - What is becoming possible with 3d printing in the longer term is the transformation of one object into another without the need of a factory. That means that if you have an empty plastic bottle you could use a 3d printer to transform it into things like a required spare part, a wrench or a shoe. Or if you have a pair of childrens shoes which becomes too small, why not scan them in a 3d scanner, reuse the material of the old shoes (and maybe add some material from the empty plastic bottle) and print out a pair of identical shoes in a larger size. All without the need of a factory, distribution chain and a shoe store.

(via emergentfutures)

Source: wired.co.uk