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3D-printed objects outgrow their printers
3D printing may be set to change the world by letting us make all sorts of bespoke objects, but there's one little problem: the printers can only print items smaller than themselves. Until now, that is.
Skylar Tibbits at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Self-Assembly Lab and colleague Marcelo Coelho have come up with a way for standard 3D printers to print out large-scale objects. "It's challenging the notion that we always need a machine that's bigger than the thing it's printing," says Tibbits.
The approach, called Hyperform, converts the object to be printed into a single long chain made from interlocking links. An algorithm works out how that chain can be packed together into the smallest cube possible using a Hilbert curve – a fractal-based pattern that is the most efficient way of squeezing a single line into a small as space as possible. The resulting cube is small enough to be printed inside a standard printer.
Hand assembly
Once this cube is printed, the chain can be unravelled and assembled by hand to create the desired object. That's possible because each link in the chain has notches that allow it to bend only in a certain way. "You have to fold it by hand and click it into place," says Tibbits. Hyperform won the "The Next Idea" prize at the Ars Electronica 2013 technology festival in Linz, Austria, earlier this month.
But printing cubes made of such densely packed chains was too much for most of the consumer printers that Tibbits and his team tried. "We blew a lot of printers at first," he says. So they teamed up with Formlabs who, after a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, have just started shipping their Form 1 3D printer.
The Form 1 is capable of much higher resolution than standard consumer 3D printers. Instead of printing out layer upon layer of plastic, it uses stereolithography, in which a pool of liquid plastic is added to the base of the printer and a laser traces out the pattern required, causing the liquid plastic to cure and solidify. The technique can form layers just 25 microns thick, with details as small as 300 microns.
Hyperform has so far been used to create large structures such as a chandelier, and Tibbits sees it as being perfect for producing large 3D-printed consumer products. But the Form 1 printer uses resins which have limitations in terms of strength. "There is a range of things that are largish that we can do right away," says Tibbits. "But if you want to make large-scale furniture or buildings, there needs to be an approach to make them stronger."
4D printing
Manually clicking each link into place isn't ideal either. That's where Tibbits' other work in so-called 4D printing might help. 4D printing uses materials that are 3D-printed to produce an intermediate object which, when exposed to water, will bend and twist itself into the final structure. "You can see how Hyperform and 4D printing are pointing towards each other," he says.
Clément Moreau, CEO of French 3D printing firm Sculpteo, says projects like Hyperform are shaping the future of 3D printing. "This is yet another example of how 3D printing is more of a flexible manufacturing process than injection moulding because it constantly opens up new possibilities in terms of materials used and shapes which can be printed."
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24275-3dprinted-objects-outgrow-their-printers.html
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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