Motorola Mobility, a Google company, is building a 3D printed modular phone, and has partnered with 3D Systems for commercial fulfillment. More »
The Captured Dimensions pop-up studio was located in the Smithsonian Castle and featured approximately 80 digital cameras all connected to 3D software. More »
Microsoft expanded their support for 3D printing by launching a Windows 8 app called 3D Builder. It includes a library of objects you can edit and 3D print. More »
3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) announced the availability of the Sense 3D scanner, the first 3D scanner designed for the consumer and optimized for 3D printing. More »
With rumors circling that 3D Systems will be purchased by IBM, the stock soars. We look at why IBM might be interested in the 3D printing giant. More »
Happy Mother’s Day: 3D Printed Gifts for Mom
Happy Mother’s Day to all Moms out there! Here are our top picks for 3D printed gifts for Mom.
Our first pick (above) is a customized Appear lamp, featured by i.materialise ($107).
A nice gold-plated Mom pendant featured by Shapeways ($32.99).
#1 Mom pencil holder, featured by Thingiverse (free download).
Elephant Mother and Child, featured by Thingiverse (free download).
Mother statuette, featured by Shapeways ($3.47 and up).
And finally, a cute 3D printing video from MakerBot dedicated to Mom.
Disney World Offers Guests Personalized 3D Printed Star Wars Memories
Disney World is using 3D printing technology to launch a new catchy souvenir for Star Wars Weekends this year.
One of the most memorable scenes from Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back is the moment when Captain Han Solo is frozen in carbonite. Starting May 18, guests at Disney’s Hollywood Studios can relive that memory and bring home a personalized carbonite figurine – with the guest’s likeness on it.
First, state-of-the-art cameras capture a guest’s face from multiple angles. Then, the image is sent to a 3D printer which produces a eight-inch figurine reminiscent of that famous scene in Star Wars.
This should prove to be a pretty popular attraction!
Read more at the Disney Parks blog.
Hat tip to 3dprinter.net for finding the story.
Fab Lab of the Week: Castilleja Girls School in Palo Alto, CA
This week’s featured Fab Lab is the Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California. Castilleja is an independent school for girls grades 6-12 in Palo Alto. The Silicon Valley Mercury News published a feature on the school and its Bourn Lab.
The Bourn Lab is part of the FabLab@School program, which was created by Paulo Blikstein, an assistant professor at Stanford who has a similar lab on campus and who started one in Moscow. Blikstein was a master’s student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology around the time a fab lab was created there, he said.
The Bourn Lab has a couple of 3-D printers, a 3-D scanner, a laser-cut printer and other equipment that have enabled one seventh-grade history class, for example, to re-create models of Leonardo da Vinci’s machines. A revolving bridge, an aerial screw, a catapult and other laser-cut wood models of the great inventor’s machines now sit in Castilleja’s library for all to admire.
The equipment for the lab cost about $60,000 and was funded by the school, the Edward E. Ford Foundation and the Doug Bourn memorial fund. Bourn, an engineer at Tesla Motors (TSLA), died in a plane crash in East Palo Alto in 2010 along with two other Tesla employees. Bourn was Castilleja’s robotics mentor.
As part of its partnership with Blikstein, Castilleja also is helping with the cost of another school fab lab, at East Palo Alto Academy, which will open later this year. Blikstein said he’s currently talking with teachers at both schools — he has worked with teachers at East Palo Alto Academy for a while, and some of the school’s students have been using his Stanford fab lab regularly — and envisions having students from the school in East Palo Alto do joint projects with Castilleja students.
Below is a video of students from the class of 2011 working in the Fab Lab.
CNET Reviews the MakerBot Replicator: Most Capable 3D Printer Under $2000 [Video]
In the video below, CNET reviews the MakerBot Replicator. This is the first 3D printer reviewed by CNET.
Rich Brown, Senior Editor for CNET, tells us, ”Chances are if you’ve heard of 3D printing, you’ve also heard of MakerBot,” and concludes that the Replicator is the most capable 3D printer under $2000.
Via CNET.
MakerBot Replicator photo by Creative Tools used under Creative Commons license.
3D Systems CEO: 3D Printing Will Be As Big As the iPad
The Cube is coming and it’s going to help 3D printing be as big as the iPad.
That’s the message 3D Systems CEO Abe Reichental wants you to understand. The Cube is 3D Systems’ new printer targeted at the mass consumer. It simplifies the process of getting from design to print via embedded Wi-Fi and cloud printing. The Cube will retail for $1,299 which undercuts the current consumer standard MakerBot Replicator by $500.
There is no doubt that Mr. Reichental has conviction about his belief in the growth of the 3D printing industry. 3D Systems transfered from NASDAQ to NYSE just one year ago and has grown its market cap by 40%. It has since been on an acquisition tear, picking up My Robot Nation, FreshFiber and several other companies. The 3D printer company recently reported record revenue for Q1 and is now placing bets on its Cube consumer printer and Cubify design portal.
In an interview with VentureBeat, Mr. Reichental commented on why 3D printing will become as big as the iPad:
There are very few artists around the world that can start painting on a blank canvas, but there are millions of people who can use a coloring book.
And further on his expectations for printer prices over time:
The prices will come down. It’s inevitable that in the next year or year-and-a-half prices will be half of what they are today, and then come down again.
We are excited to see the launch of the Cube printer!
Via VentureBeat.
iPad Crowd photo from niallkennedy used under Creative Commons license.
