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Layered fabric 3D printer creates squeezable interactive objects
A laser in the fabric printer burns shapes into material suspended by a vacuum (Photo: Disney Research)
We're used to 3D-printed objects being hard and unyielding, or perhaps a little rubbery. Thanks to work being done by scientists at Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University, however, we may soon be seeing things like soft and squishy 3D-printed teddy bears, made from layered pieces of fabric. What's more, those items could be electrically conductive.
The prototype fabric printer contains rolls of cloth, which are coated with a heat-activated adhesive on one side. Here's how the printing process works ...
A vacuum holds a length of the material in place up above a laser, which first burns a rectangle out of the cloth. Then, within that rectangle, it cuts a shape representing one 2D cross-sectional slice of the desired object. That shape isn't completely cut away from the rest of the rectangle, as the surrounding cloth is used for structural support.
Next, the vacuum is turned off, releasing the rectangle. It is then placed on top of a stack of previously-cut rectangles, and is bonded to the one on top through the application of heat. The roll of cloth advances so that a new rectangle can be made, the vacuum goes back on, and the process continues until all of the sequential slices of the object have been cut and bonded together within a cube of fabric.
The user then pulls the supporting material away by hand, revealing the finished product underneath.
This small rabbit was built from 32 layers of 2-millimeter-thick felt – using thinner felt would have resulted in finer resolution, but also a longer build time (Photo: Disney Research)
If the slices are alternately cut from two rolls of fabric, one normal and one containing conductive fibers, then the item itself will be electrically-conductive. Examples that the researchers have created include a starfish that works as a touch sensor, and a smartphone case that illuminates an LED by harvesting energy from the phone.
Additionally, by selectively adding small cuts within each slice of material, it's possible to tune the object's flexibility – this could allow it to bend easily in one direction, while remaining relatively stiff in another.
A paper on the research is being presented at the Association for Computing Machinery's annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, which is currently underway in Seoul, South Korea.
The printing process is illustrated in the following video. Disney and Carnegie Mellon have previously developed another type of "soft" 3D printer, incidentally, that creates objects by building up successive layers of felted yarn.
Source: Disney Research
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/layered-fabric-3d-printer/37109/
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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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