3D printing inspired many people to build their own robotic creations at home. The ability to design and create the parts quickly and efficiently helped build robotic wings, a problem for engineers until the 3D printer came.

The Bird Comes to Life

Several students and professors came together at the University of Maryland to make a mechanical bird. The group took eight years to make the mechanical contraption dubbed the Robo Raven.

Hard to tell the difference

To enable the bird to flap the wings independently of each other, they needed to use two motors which then required a bigger battery. The extra weight prevented the bird from weight.

The group needed to remove some of the weight and the only way to do that was to lighten the parts. This is what makes the 3D printer so versatile. With simple computer designs, you can easily change the specifications of certain areas and reprint it.

The new polymer parts helped Robo Raven lose the necessary pounds. If only it was that easy for people as well. The team also programmed the wings to perform at their optimum level depending on the conditions like any flying bird would. When trying to make a fake bird fly like a real one you need to balance the flaps with the right positions.

With the experimentation and testing done by the team, Robo Raven can perform “new in-flight aerobatics—like diving and rolling—that would have not been possible before, and brings us a big step closer to faithfully reproducing the way real birds fly” Satyandra K. Gupta, professor of mechanical engineering at U of M.

3D printing provides the changes needed to make creative thoughts real.

With smart phones becoming more and more popular, many technology companies have strived to make the next big thing. One idea is to make a smart watch that could do everything a phone does and still tell time. Some of the main competitors include Apple, Samsung, and Google.

Google has already taken the tech and placed it into glasses but so far there is no sight of a smart watch. To solve the problem and beat the giants at their own race, Brooklyn designer Dominic Prescod used a 3D printer to build one.

iPod Nano in Watch Form

Prescod didn’t really make the device but instead created a band that could hold the 6th Gen iPod Nano made by Apple. The smart watch band, the VIR or the 6th Relic, can be found on Indiegogo.

It looks like it’s really attached

Like many functional, affordable watches, the VIR uses the design of individual links attached together. That way you can adjust it to the way you want.  Prescod wanted the users to place a Nano easily into the band and carry on with their music, video, Nike+ trainer, and other functionalities with no problem. It appears he has done that by making sure to include functional buttons and a simplistic, modern look.

Right now the band currently costs $25 and can come in 5 colors: red, blue, yellow, black, and white. You should be able to choose the one that best matches your player.

In time, if sales go well, Prescod will purchase a higher quality 3D printer that should enable him to build better versions of the band. Maybe Apple can recruit him for work on their watch.

Most of us know about the invisibility cloak in Harry Potter. For those of you who do not, when you place it over your body, you become invisible.

One in real life could become extremely beneficial in scaring friends and family or being left alone. 3D technology may bring the infamous movie prop to your home soon.

The Original Invisibility Cloak

While most would like to find a way to make a person invisible, it is important to start with baby steps. The first few steps came about 7 years ago. A team of scientists built from Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering conducted research to help make an object appear invisible, but not what you think.

They showed that by placing their cloak invention around a copper cylinder, microwave beams would not become distorted. Nothing could be detected unless you used your eyes.

Modifying the Predecessor

Another, more recent, team at the Pratt School of Engineering made another invisibility cloak device with the help of a 3D printer.

Yaroslav Urzhumov, an assistant research professor in electrical and computer engineering at the school, stated that “Anyone who can spend a couple thousand dollars on a non-industry grade 3D printer can literally make a plastic cloak overnight”.

One day you could end up wearing that. Good thing you’ll be invisible

He and his team made a similar device to the one seven years ago except this one looked like a plastic disk that went under a barrage of bullets. It took about 3-6 hours to print and produces the same effects of deflecting any microwave beams it encounters.

The difference between the new and the old one is that Urzhumov feels that they could make it reflect visible light. Something that the U.S. Army Research Office appears to support by their Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative grant awarded to the university.

Urzhumov also thinks that they could make the disk a lot bigger to cover larger objects. He has already run simulations to help demonstrate his belief.

So within time you could be like Invisible Girl and vanish when the time calls, but until then I would suggest taking some magician classes.

Most companies take years to make a name for themselves, Hot Pop Factory decided they wouldn’t follow the trend.

Within less than a year, the Toronto-based company, started by Bi-Ying Miao and Matt Compeau, has used 3D technology to create extraordinary pieces. This includes the custom PEZ dispensers they made a few months ago. They struck again with their wooden and nylon 3D printed jewelry collections.

One-of-a-kind Jewelry

The new collection of wooden jewelry is named for the Northern Forest, Boreal. The printers use the wooden-based filament called LAYWOO-D3 to produce the jewelry with a slight smell of charred wood.

The same piece, with so much variety!

Kai Parthy, the designer of LAYWOO-D3, invented the filament for RepRap 3D printers. The construction is similar to PLA and needs a temperature of 175°C and 250°C. The material is made from 40% recycled wood and the rest are binding polymers.

With the real wood, the prints come out differently. One might have several rings from the tree while another may have one or even none.

The lowest available price right now is $130. If you plan on waiting for a sale of some kind, you may want to think again. Once their stock is gone, they will not reproduce the design.

Hot Pop Factory calls the nylon collection Platonix. The collection has platonic geometry shaped plastic items.

This may seem like a miniscule achievement, but Hot Pop Factory is roughly 6 months old, they opened in the fall of 2012. The duo has shown that they are capable of designing and printing for the masses. Eventually they may become the hottest thing in town.

With the growing ecommerce industry led by Amazon, people can now buy while sitting at home. More and more companies are offering similar services as the population demands it.

You could order clothes, accessories, electronics, books, etc. Whatever you can see in a store, you could find online.

A problem arises, though, from this lethargic consumer practice. At times you can find yourself with an ill-fitting piece and need to return it for another. Some companies tried to help solve this problem by offering free returns and exchanges, but the process can be excruciatingly long.

One company attempts to exterminate the misfittings by using technology to put you in a virtual world with their products. Well, that’s kind of true.

The Perfect Fit the First Time Around

Everyone wants to look stunning and several accessories can help. One of these is glasses, but finding the right pair that fits and looks great can be a real issue. To solve the problem the co-founder and CEO of 1-800 Contacts, Jonathon Coon, created Glasses.com.

The site uses advanced 3D technology to help its shoppers choose the proper pair for their facial features. As Coon notes “Online shopping today is just a digital version of the Sears catalog from 100 years ago. The days of putting a photo of a product up on a white background with a price are over.”

What you need to do is download the app from the Apple store, Glasses.com 3D Fit, and take a video of yourself from the sides and front. With the video, the software isolates fifteen different angles and builds the 3D rendering of your face.

Making your face digital with everyday technology

With the rendering you can select a pair of glasses and view them from different angles. The app also lets you adjust the positioning of the pair depending on you want to wear them. What’s different as well is the fact that you can pick out the ones you think look great and have friends vote on it.

This is a strange tactic that could turn to something great. Coon doesn’t know how well the app will be perceived but he does think that the store will lead to others following.

“The real story here isn’t virtual try-on of glasses. The Glasses.com application will be to augmented-reality shopping what ‘Toy Story’ was for computer-generated animated films. ‘Toy Story’ was the first 100 percent CG animated film, the first to look good and the first to achieve commercial success” says Coon. It’s always nice when visionaries lead the change.

Overtime the wonders of the world slowly deteriorate. To prevent the loss of these fantastic human creations, a Scottish Team has devised a schedule to capture 10 world heritage sites which includes 5 from Scotland and 5 from the rest of the world.

The 5-year project came from talks between Scottish Government’s heritage agency, Historic Scotland, the Glasgow School of Art’s Digital Design Studio, and a non-profit digital heritage organization, CyArk. The only project that comes from the 20^th century is the Sydney Opera House in Australia, which is currently being scanned this week.

The Sydney Opera House’s Life-Saving Operation

The iconic structure was first designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon. Although the site is the newest one on the list, the team decided that they would preserve it for posterity.

The CEO of the Opera House, Louise Herron, stated that “It is a great accolade that the Scottish Ten project selected the Opera House as its only 20^th Century building. This extraordinary virtual Opera House will be vital to both preserving the building and helping it to evolve.”

Looks scary up there!

The Scottish Ten project expects the 3D laser scanning to make a digital rendering of the building by the 40^th anniversary celebrations in October.

Performing the scans will be difficult as the team needed to make a custom rig to support the device around the sails. They used a flying fox system to transfer the rig from sail to sail.

Special care has been taken to ensure the laser mapping will be accurate to the real model by using special long-range 3D surveyors.

The group’s rendering will provide the Sydney Opera House with comprehensive building-management and conservation data that should help the coordinators provide a better experience to the 8.2 million visitors a year.

Preserving the World One Picture at a Time

Although the modern structure seems fine now, it could be a matter of time before a major repair will need to be done. With the digital map that the Scottish Ten project will create, the Sydney Opera House can be restored to its previous glory in case of any disaster that could occur.

3D technology could be used on other wonders to help future generations enjoy what we have now. Hopefully no one will try and tamper with certain flawed constructions like the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Great Sphinx.

Power outages often come with major storms. For instance the heavy rainfall that flooded the Midwest took out thousands of homes’ electricity. Some had it restored in hours, while others are still living in the Stone Age. Often times the outages are caused by the electrical lines snapping or separating.

Regular inspections help prevent the lines from breaking, but the task of surveying all the miles of wires cost millions and poses a life-threat to the inspector. One wrong slip while on the utility line or in the helicopter could cause either electrocution or a 30+ foot fall resulting in potential death.

Robotics could aid the dilemma, but so far they remain expensive to produce. A group of students at the University of California in San Diego worked on an invention that can scan the power lines for damage.

The SkySweeper

The mechanical engineering department at the University said that they have come up with a 3D-printed robot that can travel the lines and detect potential areas of concern. The designer of the piece, Nick Morozovsky, is a graduate student who worked with others in the Coordinated Robotics Lab and the mechanical and aerospace engineering professor, Tom Bewley.

Just let the robots take care of it

The group made a prototype, called the SkySweeper, with everyday electronics and plastic models from a printer. They say that a scale up of the SkySweeper would be less than $1,000, far less than the others available.

The SkySweeper uses clamps at the end of its arm to slowly move down the line. The V-shaped robot can also take energy from the line through induction coils in order to travel larger distances without stopping.

Preventing the Inevitable

The SkySweeper will not be able to guarantee that the wires won’t break as a heavy tree branch can break the newest of lines. It can however help utility companies spot the points that need repair without risking the lives of people. 3D printing might be one of the best things for robotics and technology, besides the microprocessor.

3D technology has helped companies come out of nowhere. These newly founded businesses have either expanded the current industry or made an entirely new one. One is the simple bicycle.

Most people would think that additive manufacturing would aid in the manufacturing of the two-wheeled ride, but few would think that the technology would rather help the customization of the bike. Having opened up a new bicycle shop at 2163 N. Clybourn in Chicago, Roll helps their customers have the best riding experience possible.

The Shop

Stuart Hunter began Roll back in 2005. The mission was simple: make buying a bike as easy as possible. A kid can learn to ride a bike by age five but an adult riding for 30 years will still feel lost when it comes to the different styles and types.

It’s open!

Stuart decided to make a bike store that would provide customer service like no one else. Maybe this is the reason why he launched 3 different stores and an online business. The new store on Clybourn is different than your everyday bike seller.

Roll: Perfect Fit System

Roll equipped the store with a 3D body scanner that uses lasers and cameras called Roll: Perfect Fit. With it the employees can create a complete scan of a cyclist and develop a geometric skeletal rendering of the person.

The scanning software can provide the user with the optimal adaptation for riding. The Roll staff will then adjust the contact points, like the pedals, seat, etc., to make the best bike they ever bought.

The store also offers a free scan check with a bike you bring in. That can be great to make sure you are getting the most out of your ride. You can also buy apparel and other bike gear too.

Riding for the Future

So whether you are an extreme cyclist or are looking for a casual ride, Roll can help. For those far away from a Roll store, it is only a matter of time before one opens up near you. If we learned anything from the recent expansion of businesses, it’s that others will not hesitate to join in on the fun. No matter where you buy the custom bike, just roll with it.