Archive for the ‘3D Printing’ Category

3D Robotic Spider Creepier Than the Real Thing

Thursday, July 4th, 2013

A small robotics company called Robugtix is about to give everyone something special whether they want it or not…arachnophobia.

One of the company’s newest bots is named, simply and innocently, the T8. All of that simpleness and innocence evaporates quickly when you actually get to see the T8 in action.

3D-printed and housing 26 motors to move its creepy little self around, the T8 doesn’t just have the fact that it’s made to look like a spider going against it. When you see the T8’s movements is when you get to see just how amazingly and eerily realistic it looks.

For about the price of one month’s rent in a metro apartment, you can grab your very own robotic nightmare from Robugtix which can either be controlled by you like your very own spidery, robotic minion or you can program the T8 to step through a sequence you create.

Robugtix mentions how great the T8 is for someone to learn advanced robotics.

About 10 or 15 years from now, super-villains will be sitting around talking about their formative years where they all owned a small, slightly menacing-looking robotic spider they had to send away for.

[Gizmodo]

Posted in 3D Printing, Robot, Spider | 1 Comment »

Duck Gets 3D-Printed Foot to Help Him Walk Again!

Monday, July 1st, 2013

Buttercup is an adorable little duck who was born with one of his feet turned backwards.

Born at a high school as part of a biology program, Buttercup was given to a sanctuary specializing in dealing with ducks.

Software engineer for the sanctuary, Mike Garey, took Buttercup under his wing and began looking for ways to give this little duck a much-less painful method of mobility.

Using photos of Buttercup’s sister Minnie’s foot, NovaCopy, a 3D printing company that Garey had gone to, created and then printed a copy of the foot.

Just last night, Buttercup was given the new foot to test out and the result is something that’ll make even hard-nosed haters of cute stuff smirk a little bit at.

The video above is Buttercup before the new foot. The video below is Buttercup with the new foot.

[Gizmodo and Buttercup’s Facebook Page]

Posted in 3D Printing, Animal, Animals | Comments Off on Duck Gets 3D-Printed Foot to Help Him Walk Again!

‘Clone Factory’ Prints Eerily Realistic 3D Dolls of YOU!

Thursday, June 13th, 2013

Akhibara, Japan is the place to go to get just about anything you want in life…even if that anything includes wanting a creepy doll-like clone of yourself.

Recently a company called “Clone Factory” opened which now allows you to not only have a 3D-printed doll-head of your own mug but your pets as well.

Using several DSLR cameras, Clone Factory captures your face from different angles, puts it all together in the computer, prints it and hands you a bill for $1,300 US bucks.

Clone Factory uses one of the most advanced 3D printers (made by ZCorp) on the market to print out these plastic little mini-selfs of its customers. Disney recently used these same printers during their annual Star Wars Weekends at Walt Disney World where guests could either have their likeness frozen in a slab of carbonite or put onto the body of a Stormtrooper (complete with detachable helmet).

Most of Clone Factory’s customers are actually women. Not only do the women seek to preserve how they look on special days like their weddings, they also have the exact outfits they’re wearing at the time as well as their hair and make-up recreated as well.

Which doesn’t make any of this any less creepy.
[DesignTaxi]

Posted in 3D Printing, Clone, Clones | Comments Off on ‘Clone Factory’ Prints Eerily Realistic 3D Dolls of YOU!

NASA Developing Printed Food for Astronauts!

Wednesday, June 12th, 2013

3D printng is the ‘it’ thing right now. It seems like nothing can’t be printed. We can print plastic toys, metal parts and even cell tissues using additive manufacturing. So what’s next?

Food…3D-printed food.

A Texas company is partnering with NASA to explore the idea of printing food during long, deep space missions. Systems and Materials Research and
Consultancy, a company in Austin, was recently awarded a Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 contract concerning printing
food for astronauts. Currently astronauts eat foods that lose their micronutrients during the process they go through to become official space-food.

Eventually the prepackaged, off-the-shelf, single-servings the astronauts nom on now will make way for customizable recipes.

Anyone else excited to witness the first live-stream of a 3D-printed Thanksgiving dinner…in space? Us too.
[DesignBoom]

Posted in 3D Printing, Astronaut, Experiment, Food, NASA, Science, Space | Comments Off on NASA Developing Printed Food for Astronauts!