/ News
High-Tech In-Ear Monitors Are Better Than Ever With 3D Custom Fitting and Printing
It is the rare professional musician–at least the ones who have achieved a reasonable level of success–that doesn’t sport a pair of in-ear monitors (IEMs) during a performance or a recording session. Previously, musicians on stage relied on monitors that looked like boxy speakers. The monitors were on the stage with the performers and directed toward them so they could hear a mix of audio sources. The monitors–called “wedges” or “floor monitors”–could be sophisticated and ultimately help the performers do what they do best. If, however, they were of lesser quality or the music was particularly loud, the monitors could be more distracting than helpful.
This was the case with the heavy metal band, Van Halen. Apparently the monitors were causing hearing loss in band member, Alex Van Halen, so Jerry Harvey, the group’s monitor engineer, created what’s referred to as a “passive crossover” (don’t require power) in-ear monitor (IEM). Harvey kept refining the IEMs and they caught on. Eventually, the company, Ultimate Ears, took up the audio gauntlet and began making custom IEMs.
Ultimate Ears has sold more than 50,000 IEMs and their customer base has expanded from primarily musicians to devoted audiophiles. Now Ultimate Ears Pro, the company is engaging 3D technology to improve their process for producing custom-made in-ear monitors. UE Pro’s Director of Sales, Mike Dias, relates how the company justified the transition from traditional manufacturing of the made-to-fit earpieces, to 3D imaging, design, and printing. He explained that the technological leap wasn’t about saving money. In fact, Dias noted, “Bringing this process in required a tremendous investment of capital, time, resources and training.”
Acquiring the necessary software, equipment, and know-how was not an inexpensive endeavor. However, what Ultimate Ears Pro can now provide are in-ear monitors that fit their wearers even better than the ones they manufactured prior to introducing 3D technology. The big sell where 3D technology is concerned for UE Pro was not a quicker turnaround time for customers–that was cut by almost 50%–it was the capacity for improving the quality of the fit (and thus the overall sound) by taking customization to the digital realm. Now, the artisans at UE Pro can tweak their digital models rather than making refinements in the silicone pieces used previously.
Much of the initial customization process has remained the same. The customer still has to see an audiologist for the fitting. Each of the user’s ears is injected with a silicone material, which hardens and eventually becomes a solid mold. Afterwards, a precision, 3D scanner is used to produce CAD files of each mold. Digital artists tailor each model so that it fits and seals flawlessly into the user’s ears and, finally, the models are sent to the 3D printer.
After the shells are printed, they are checked for quality and then the electronics are embedded and they are fixed with face plates. Turnaround is approximately 7 to 10 business days from the day UE Pro receives the digital file from the audiologist. Ultimate Ears Pro actually began using 3D technology over a year-and-a-half ago, but ever conscious of quality, they waited for feedback from customers before making their most recent innovations public and more broadly available. According to Dias, reviews have been excellent. Some customers have insisted that the sound quality is even better than before.
UE Pro’s IEMs are not for the struggling, shoestring-budget musician or the middle-of-the-road audiophile. Dual driver sets range from about $400 to $1,350. They also require something of a time commitment as the user still must see the audiologist for the initial scans. However, Dias says that one improvement Ultimate Ears Pro hopes for is to place 3D scanners in local music stores so users can get their scans and place their orders on the spot, thus bypassing the audiologist and probably cutting the cost a bit as well.
Discuss this story in the Ultimate Ears Pro forum thread on 3DPB.com.
Source: http://3dprint.com/17904/in-ear-monitors-3d-print/
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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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