University of Arizona student Matt Bunting talks about building a hexapod robot using 3D printing technology. The robot is cool, but more importantly this video demonstrates one of the major use cases for current gen 3D printers, namely the acceleration of STEM education.
Computer driven sewing machines already exist, but none do what this concept rendering proposes. The best machines today use a “Spot” approach: a spool of specifically colored thread is installed on a machine and it fills and area of an embroidery. This machine would employ a “process” approach where four colors of thread would overlap to create multiple other colors. A concept like this would certainly be difficult to execute, given the thickness of thread layers, but it is an interesting illustration of how much innovation is possible within customization tools.
Crowdsourcing design. Many scoff at the notion that a well produced, feature length film could ever be produced by a distributed team. The producers of Iron Sky, a pulpy mash up of UFO and WWII genres, are demolishing that notion. The production design looks excellent, much better than many “Real” Hollywood studios and is being pulled together by a widely dispersed group of amateur film makers.
Quirky is a “social product design company” that is doing for consumer products what Iron Sky is doing for film. They solicit design ideas from their audience, presell the concepts, and have a team of industrial designers create mockups and final designs. Quirky was recently funded by VC’s and their model has a lot of exciting potential, especially if they can maintain the vow to release a new product every week. The Cloak is one of their first products, a neat iPad case/display.
Chris Anderson’s Wired Cover Story brought the notion of bits and atoms to the masses, but it is a concept that has been driving businesses for a long time. Arts and Craft supplies are a $30B industry. Crafting toys make up another $2B market. While start up companies get press, mainstream behemoths like Disney have figured out how to print money with creative playthings like this “Make your own” vinyl art toy.
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