While the subject of online piracy is certainly nothing new, the recent protests against SOPA and the federal raid on Megaupload
have thrust the issue into mainstream media. More than ever, people are
discussing the controversial topic while content creators scramble to
find a way to try to either shut down or punish sites and individuals
that take part in the practice. Despite these efforts, online piracy
continues to be a thorn in Big Media’s side. With the digital media
arena all but conquered by piracy,
the infamous site The Pirate Bay (TPB) has begun looking to the next
frontier to be explored and exploited. According to a post on its blog,
TPB has declared that physical objects named “physibles” are the next
area to be traded and shared across global digital smuggling routes.
TPB
defines a physible as “data objects that are able (and feasible) to
become physical.” Namely, items that can be created using 3D scanning and printing technologies, both of which have become much cheaper for you to actually own in your home. At CES
this year, MakerBot Industries introduced its latest model which is
capable of printing objects in two colors and costs under $2,000. With
the price of such devices continuing to drop, 3D printing is going to be
part of everyday life
in the near future. Where piracy is going to come in is the exchange of
the files (3D models) necessary to create these objects.
A 3D
printer is essentially a “CAD-CAM” process. You use a computer-aided
design (CAD) program to design a physical object that you want made, and
then feed it into a computer-aided machining (CAM) device for creation.
The biggest difference is that traditional CAM setups, the process is
about milling an existing piece of metal, drilling holes and using water
jets to carve the piece into the desired configuration. In 3D printing
you use extrusion to actually create what is illustrated in the CAD
file. Those CAD files are the physibles that TPB is talking about, since
they are digital they are going to be as easily transferred as an MP3
or movie is right now.
It
isn’t too far outside the realm of possibility that once 3D printing
becomes a part of everyday life, companies will begin to sell the CAD
files and the rights to be able to print proprietary items. If the
technology continues to advance at the same rate, in 10 or 20 years you
might be printing a new pair of Nikes for your child’s basketball game
right in your home (kind of like the 3D printed sneakers pictured
above). Instead of going to the mall and paying $120 for a physical pair
of shoes in a retail outlet, you will pay Nike directly on the internet
and receive the file necessary to direct your printer to create the
sneakers. Of course, companies will do their level best to create DRM on
these objects so that you can’t freely just print pair after pair of
shoes, but like all digital media it will be broken be enterprising
individuals.
TPB has already created a physibles category on its site,
allowing you to download plans to be able to print out such things as
the famous Pirate Bay Ship and a 1970 Chevy hot rod. For now it’s going
to be filled with user-created content, but in the future you can count
on it being stocked with plans for DRM-protected objects.
One of the key reasons I haven't ponied up for a MakerBot
yet is because I'm still not sure it will be able to produce the types
of things I specifically would like to make. It would be neat if they
had some sort of "try before you buy" scheme where you could e-mail them
plans and get the part back in the mail for a fee, to see if it met
your expectations.
Until something like that develops, one blog I've found that makes for interesting reading is Brendan Dawes' Everything I Make with my MakerBot, whereby he documents his projects dating back to December of 2010, when he first bought the machine.
Although technically an artist and DJ, Dawes has enough ID in his
bones to hint at what things you, as an industrial designer, would
probably come up with if you had a MakerBot lying around the house. Thus
we see things like cable wraps, a bicycle mount for a camera, a
notebook writing utensil holder perfectly modified to store his
preferred type of pencil, a modular desktop organizer system, and more.
Also informative is that he shows us his failures as well as his
successes, revealing miscalculated parts and botched jobs resulting from
a particular bolt on the machine not being tight enough. As I know I'd
produce my fair share of errors, it's illuminating to see what can go
wrong and how you can take steps to avoid it.
As IDers we're constantly looking at things and thinking "Jeez, if I
only had something shaped like [this] then I could use it for [that.]" Dawes' blog really drives home that he continually has thoughts like these, and is able to quickly turn those into a reality.
Many of us have been waiting for the moment when 3D printers
would not only be offered ready-to-use without the need of DIY
assembly, but at a price comparable to a common computer. Well get
excited, because that day has arrived.
Created by 3D Systems, the Cube
will retail for just $1,299 and is connected to a community of 3D
designers where you can find inspiration, or upload your own designs and
sell them in the Cubify marketplace. Admittedly, the MakerBot Replicator
is only a tad more expensive at $1,749, but just like the early
versions of the home Windows PC versus the Mac, the Cube wins on style
points for those who prefer a less industrial look and feel to their 3D
printer.
You can order the Cube 3D printer here and check out the design to fabrication process in the video below.
Miles Lightwood, of TeamTeamUSA, is leading Project Shelter as Makerbot's artist in residence.
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.
Hermit crabs don’t make their own shells. They scavenge
their homes. And now, hermit crabs are facing a housing shortage as the
worldwide shell supply is decreasing. With a shell shortage, hermit
crabs around the world are being forced to stick their butts into
bottles, shotgun shells, and anything else they can find. This is not
acceptable. As a community, we can reach out to this vulnerable species
and offer our digital design skills and 3D printing capabilities and
give hermit crabs another option: 3D printed shells.
One of the challenges is that no one knows yet if hermit crabs will
live in man-made plastic shells. And if they will, what shell designs
would make the best hermit crab homes. Makerbot is setting up a hermit
crab habitat in their factory to test shell designs shared by the
community.
This is an ingenious crowdsourced intervention, and I encourage you to check it out (follow the #SHELLTER
tag Twitter). But, a thought - how about we stop destroying hermit crab
homes in the first place? Isn't putting too much plastic stuff in the
ocean part of the problem?
UPDATE 10/25:
Some clarification from the Makerbot folks brought up from comments below:
The final shell material has yet to be determined; plastic is being used for prototypes
No printed shells have been distributed in the wild
The goal is to create a printable hermit crab shell for domestic (aquariums) use thus reducing harvesting of natural shells
If 'Silence of the Lambs' gave you nightmares, you should probably just navigate away from this page right now. Otherwise, prepare to be impressed, intrigued, and deeply disturbed — all at the same time.
You're looking at the work of Japanese company REAL-f. REAL-f specializes in the production of "3-Dimensional Photo Forms," i.e. freakishly realistic masks and busts of just about anybody willing to throw down the cash to have one made of him/herself.
Those interested in possessing an exact replica of their face (down to the level of individual pores and eye vasculature, according to REAL-f's website) can get a 3D "face mask" for US $3,920. A copy of your entire head will set you back US $5,875. Additional face and head copies run $780 and $1,960, respectively.
Do I want one? Absolutely. Would I ever sleep in the same room as my mask? Absolutely not.
MakerBot's Thing-O-Matic 3D is a toy-printing badass.
Robot Santa's going to be busy this year. With all theshiny new gadgetshe needs to deliver, his elves will have it hard. You want one toy? Pfft. What you want is a whole elf workshop of your own — a place that pumps out unlimited amounts of toys — or at least, something similar. That's a3D printer.
The ultimate present this year is a 3D printer — a machine thatmakes, err, "prints" toys. Who needs to keep asking for gifts from people, when you can print some new ones whenever you want to?
Marloes ten Bhromer
is a critically acclaimed Dutch designer. She produces some
incredible outworldly shoe designs based on a unique combination of art
and technological functionality.
Why did she use rapid prototyping? According to Marloes, this is because; "rapid
prototyping – adding material in layers – rather than traditional shoe
manufacturing methods – could help me create something entirely new
within just a few hours."
And why Objet? Again, in her words; "Objet Connex printers make
it possible to print an entire shoe – albeit a concept shoe – including a
hard heel and a flexible upper in one build, which just isn't possible with other 3D printing technologies."
The Objet Connex multi-material 3D printer allows the simulatneous printing of both rigid and rubber-like material grades and shades within a single prototype, which is why it's used by many of the world's largest shoe manufacturers.
And of course, because it's 3D printing and not traditional
manufacturing methods, there are no expensive set-up costs and no
minimum quantities to worry about!
This particular shoe design is based on a modular concept – with an
interchangeable heel to allow for specific customizations as well
as easy repairs (see the bottom photo which shows the heel detatched).
The 3D printed modular shoe will be available for viewing at the Power of Making exhibition – starting today at the world-famous Victoria and Albert Museum in London. If you are anywhere near the UK this is worth a visit.
If you can't make it right at this moment, don't worry – the shoe and the exhibit will remain there until January 2nd.
The Power of Making exhibition is created in collaboration with the
Crafts Council. Curator Daniel Charney's aim is to encourage visitors to
consider the process of making, not just the final results. For this
the 3D printing process is particularly salient.
For more details on this story read the Press Release here.
If the first industrial revolution
was all about mass manufacturing and machine power replacing manual
labor, the First Industrial Evolution will be about the ability to
evolve your personal designs online and then print them using popular 3D printing technology.
Once these 3D printing technologies enter the mainstream, they could
lead to a fundamental change in the way that individuals - even those
without any design or engineering skills - are able to create beautiful,
state-of-the-art objects on demand in their own homes. It is, quite
simply, the democratization of personal manufacturing on a massive
scale.
3D printing capabilities, once limited to the laboratory, are now hitting the mainstream. Consider the fact that MakerBot Industries just landed $10 million from VC investors. In the future, each of us may have a personal 3D printer in the home, ready to print out personal designs on demand.
At the same time, there’s been a radical re-thinking about how products are designed and brought to market. Take On the Origin of Tepees, a book by British scientist Jonnie Hughes,
which presents a highly provocative thesis: What if design evolves the
same way that humans do? What if cultural ideas evolve the way humans
do? One example cited by Hughes is the simple cowboy hat from the American Wild West.
What if an object like the cowboy hat “evolved” itself, using cowboys
and ranch hands simply as a unique "selective environment” so that it
could evolve over time?
Wait a second, what's going on here? Objects using humans to evolve
themselves? 3D Printers? Someone's been drinking the Kool-Aid, right?
But if you’ve read Richard Dawkins' bestseller The Selfish Gene,
you can see where Hughes is headed with his ideas. Dawkins coined the
term “meme” back in 1976 to express the concept of thoughts and ideas
having a life of their own, free to mutate and adapt, while cleverly
using their human “hosts” as a reproductive vehicle to pass on these
memes to others. Memes functioned like genes, in that their only goal
was to reproduce for the next generation. In such a way, evolved designs
are a form of "teme" -- a term first popularized by Susan Blackmore, author of The Meme Machine, to denote ideas that are replicated via technology.
What if that gorgeous iPad 2 you’re holding in your hand was actually
“evolved” and not “designed”? What if it is the object that controls
the design, and not the designer that controls the object? Hod Lipson,
an expert on self-aware robots and a pioneer of the 3D printing
movement, has claimed that we are on the brink of the second industrial revolution. However, if objects really do "evolve," is it more accurate to say that we are on the brink of The First Industrial Evolution?
The final frontier, of course, is not the ability of humans to print
out beautifully-evolved objects on demand using 3D printers in their
homes. (Although that’s quite cool). The final frontier is the ability
for self-aware objects independently “evolving” humans and then printing
them out as they need them. Sound far-fetched? Well, it’s now possible to print 3D human organs and 3D human skin.
When machine intelligence progresses to a certain point, what’s to
stop independent, self-aware machines from printing human organs? The
implications – for both atheists and true believers – are perhaps too
overwhelming even to consider.
English engineers have produced what is believed to be the world's
first printed plane. I'm not talking a nice artsy lithograph of the
Wright Bros. first flight. This is a complete, flyable aircraft spit out
of a 3D printer.
The SULSA began life in something like an inkjet and wound up in the air. (Credit:
University of Southhampton)
The SULSA (Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft) is an
unmanned air vehicle that emerged, layer by layer, from a nylon laser
sintering machine that can fabricate plastic or metal objects. In the
case of the SULSA, the wings, access hatches, and the rest of the
structure of the plane were all printed.
As if that weren't awesome enough, the entire thing snaps together in
minutes, no tools or fasteners required. The electric plane has a
wingspan of just under 7 feet and a top speed of 100 mph.
Jim Scanlon, one of the project leads at the University of Southhampton, explains in a statement that the technology allows for products to go from conception to reality much quicker and more cheaply.
"The flexibility of the laser-sintering process allows the design
team to revisit historical techniques and ideas that would have been
prohibitively expensive using conventional manufacturing," Scanlon says.
"One of these ideas involves the use of a Geodetic structure... This
form of structure is very stiff and lightweight, but very complex. If it
was manufactured conventionally it would require a large number of
individually tailored parts that would have to be bonded or fastened at
great expense."
So apparently when it comes to 3D printing, the sky is no longer the
limit. Let's just make sure someone double-checks the toner levels
before we start printing the next international space station.