Tag Archives: research
3D Printing at Top of “Hype Cycle”, Gartner Reports
Leading research firm Gartner published its annual “Hype Cycle” report. 3D printing was among the technologies at the peak of the hype cycle.
Big data, 3D printing, activity streams, Internet TV, Near Field Communication (NFC) payment, cloud computing and media tablets are some of the fastest-moving technologies identified in Gartner Inc.’s 2012 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies.
Gartner analysts said that these technologies have moved noticeably along the Hype Cycle since 2011, while consumerization is now expected to reach the Plateau of Productivity in two to five years, down from five to 10 years in 2011. Bring your own device (BYOD), 3D printing and social analytics are some of the technologies identified at the Peak of Inflated Expectations in this year’s Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle.
The Hype Cycle has a predictable path for technologies.
The Hype Cycle graphic has been used by Gartner since 1995 to highlight the common pattern of overenthusiasm, disillusionment and eventual realism that accompanies each new technology and innovation. The Hype Cycle Special Report is updated annually to track technologies along this cycle and provide guidance on when and where organizations should adopt them for maximum impact and value.
This year’s theme was tipping points.
We are at an interesting moment, a time when many of the scenarios we’ve been talking about for a long time are almost becoming reality,” said Hung LeHong, research vice president at Gartner. “The smarter smartphone is a case in point. It’s now possible to look at a smartphone and unlock it via facial recognition, and then talk to it to ask it to find the nearest bank ATM. However, at the same time, we see that the technology is not quite there yet. We might have to remove our glasses for the facial recognition to work, our smartphones don’t always understand us when we speak, and the location-sensing technology sometimes has trouble finding us.”
Read more at Gartner.
Who Makes Better Sand Castles: Kids or 3D Printing?
Building sand castles is one of the cherished experiences for kids in the summer. Castles can be big or small, organized or chaotic. But it’s really about the process.
Well, a new 3D printing system called Stone Spray is looking to upstage these kids with perfectly created sand castles.
Stone Spray is a revolutionary construction method which uses soil as the base material and a liquid binder to solidify the soil granules. And uses a jet spray system to deposit the mix of soil and binder, for constructing architectural shapes.
Stone Spray is a project by architects Petr Novikov, Inder Shergill and Anna Kulik. The project is done in the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and supervised by Marta Male-Alemany, Jordi Portell and Miquel Lloveras. With professional advisors: Santigo Martin from Vortica and Guillem Camprodon from Fab Lab Bcn.
Stone Spray is a research project. We want to push further the boundaries of digital manufacturing and explore the possibilities of an on-site fabrication machines.
The video below shows the team’s project in action.
Sand castle image by Paul Watson used under Creative Commons license.
Results of First Survey On 3D Printing: Adoption, Education, Services
[Updated for corrections]
The results of the first survey on 3D printing are captured below, courtesy of Statistical Studies of Peer Production. We wanted to highlight the most interesting statistics.
First engagement with 3D printing: The survey asked respondents when they first used 3D printing. The largest concentration was for the year 2011. 2010 and 2012 were close runners up. This suggests that we are at an inflection point for adoption of 3D printing.
Education level: 33.7% of 3D printing users have a 4-year college degree and another 23.5% have an advanced degree. This suggests that the earliest adopters are mainly well-educated people.
Most commonly used 3D printers: The most commonly used 3D printer was RepRap, with MakerBot as the close second.
Usage of 3D printing services: The most-used 3D printing service was Shapeways. Others, like i.materialise and Ponoko, were not commonly used. The largest response to this question was “none”, which suggests that these 3D printing services have a long road ahead in terms of driving awareness.
Read the full report at PeerProduction.net.
Here is a video by Stephen Murphey visualizing the results.
Scientists Create Blood Vessels Using Sugar and 3D Printing
University researchers have discovered a way to 3D print blood vessels, using sugar as the “ink” and a RepRap 3D printer. UPenn and MIT researchers collaborated on the study.
The research was conducted by a team led by postdoctoral fellow Jordan S. Miller and Christopher S. Chen, the Skirkanich Professor of Innovation in the Department of Bioengineering at Penn, along with Sangeeta N. Bhatia, Wilson Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and postdoctoral fellow Kelly R. Stevens in Bhatia’s laboratory.
The researchers published their findings in Nature and summarized their results in a UPenn statement.
Rather than trying to print a large volume of tissue and leave hollow channels for vasculature in a layer-by-layer approach, Chen and colleagues focused on the vasculature first and designed free-standing 3D filament networks in the shape of a vascular system that sat inside a mold. As in lost-wax casting, a technique that has been used to make sculptures for thousands of years, the team’s approach allowed for the mold and vascular template to be removed once the cells were added and formed a solid tissue enveloping the filaments.
The formula they settled on — a combination of sucrose and glucose along with dextran for structural reinforcement — is printed with a RepRap, an open-source 3D printer with a custom-designed extruder and controlling software. An important step in stabilizing the sugar after printing, templates are coated in a thin layer of a degradable polymer derived from corn. This coating allows the sugar template to be dissolved and to flow out of the gel through the channels they create without inhibiting the solidification of the gel or damaging the growing cells nearby. Once the sugar is removed, the researchers start flowing fluid through the vascular architecture and cells begin to receive nutrients and oxygen similar to the exchange that naturally happens in the body.
Below is a video showing their amazing discovery.
Read more from the UPenn summary.
Blood vessel photo by shoebappa used under Creative Commons license.
3D Printed Nano Objects: New World Record for Micro Printing
A team from the Vienna University of Technology set a new world record this week: 3D printed nano objects in just 4 minutes. Their process, called two-photon lithography, uses a focused laser to harden liquid resin.
Applications? Consider how this process could be used to make micro objects for biomedical research and treatment.
Photo above is a human figure smaller than a grain of sand. Photo below is a detailed cathedral about 50 microns in length.
Read more and see additional photos at Reuters’ World in Nano.
