Getting a Linux friendly driver for a crafting machine like the CriCut or a Brother CNC sewing machine would be a nice development in the fabbing world. Having Linus Torvalds write it? Excellent news indeed.

Linus wrote software that eases the the proprietary pains of one machine (The comments on the post are very useful as well). It is an exciting step forward for a tech luminary to shed a bit of light on this technology that while niche, represents a growing part of a $30B market. Bits and atoms are colliding with increasing frequency and not just at MIT’s Media lab. Millions of personal fabrication machines are being used in the suburbs for humble arts and crafts projects (and some other interesting applications). Almost all of them are burdened with terrible software and present an excellent opportunity for any entrepreneurs frustrated from chasing the mirage of music start up millions or creating the next “Big” Twitter app.

The iPad has been called a “Yuppie Content Consumption Machine” and will certainly have difficulties with traditional content creation. The lack of a real keyboard is going to make blogging and email conversations difficult. However, I think new modes of content creation, or at least productivity may be possible.

Take a use case like planning vacation travel. Current sites like Vacation.com or Virgin Vacations are well optimized for the keyboard and mouse, but leave something to be desired in terms of UX. Compare that to the excellent travel guides produced by DK. The content is beautiful and engaging, but static.

The iPad seems to be able to bridge both experiences. The beautiful graphics of the DK guides could be simulated with a CMS and content pulled from sites with CC attribution or created specifically for the app.

A couple could plan a trip organically, passing the device back and forth on a couch, sharing pics, keeping notes of places to visit, compiling a list of “must see” destinations on top of a Google map. You could build an itinerary that updates cost and travel data as you plan. As you travel pictures can be associated with places, shared on Facebook, or printed into books when you arrive home. Translations can be provided as needed.

A laptop could do the same things, but even the best and smallest versions would be an inconvenience. Tablets, the iPad in particular, will be able to fit into special moments the way a camera does.

This travel example is yuppie glamorous and I have a tendency towards tech based Utopian visions. Even so, if you examine your daily routine you can easily start to pick out scenarios where access to the web and all it offers would be valuable even without the benefit of a physical QWERTY keyboard.

I read a great tweet via Erik Price that summed up my feelings on tablets: “The biggest promise of tablets is that they can make people realize they can get the benefit of software without the pain of computers.”

Erik de Bruijn works with the RepRap foundation as a developer and promoter. This interest in and access to the forefront of home brew personal fabrication provides fodder for anyone interested in 3D printing. His blog touches on everything related to home fabbing, from the utopian vision of how distributed manufacturing would change commerce to the technical minutiae of building a spooling mechanism for the RepRap.

If you are at all interested in the technical aspects of 3D printing Erik’s blog is a great one to read. There is no fluff and you get a 2 year view into the future of the RepRap project and by extension MakerBot. The RepRap project is sufficently advanced that it also acts as a proxy for the challenges facing a company like Stratasys. E.g. One common complaint about the FDM printing process is the uneven texture of the printed parts. Erik figured out a way to smooth the parts. It isn’t the same quality as injection molding, but is a huge step forward.

Another advance is the use of multiple materials when printing. Most commercial 3D printers have a print head to deposit a “build” material for the part you designed and a “support” material to provide a scaffold to create the part you want. This enables more complex shapes to be printed. The RepRap doesn’t currently support multi-material printing. However, you can track the progress of its implementation at Erik’s blog.

It is a real treat to read about the technical and philosophical sides of personal fabrication from the perspective of someone who is getting their hands dirty with the technology. I look forward to the next chapter and encourage you to subscribe.

Robot 3D Printing

There are a bunch of web-based 3D printing services, Shapeways and Quickparts being two of the best. Almost all have a “we’ll print anything” attitude, but the robotics blog “Plastic Pals” shares info about a Japanese 3D Printing service bureau that only makes robot parts. The website is sparse, but the idea is intriguing. Specialist fabrication services could tailor their offerings and create purpose built design tools for their community. Shapeways does this for a variety of home decor products, but the robotics niche, filled with early adopters, might be a better target.

Making Tech Popular

Along the lines of making robotics look cooler, I just stumbled upon awesome medals the team at Evil Mad Scientists Labs made to celebrate the winners of the 2009 RoboGames. These are awesome. In the maker world aesthetics and humor are often ignored, but team EMSL has a great knack for projects that are technically interesting, cool looking, and fun.

Photo Credit: Lenore M. Edman, www.evilmadscientist.com

Anti-Wired

Gizmodo calls “Tired” on the Wired cover story comparing bits to atoms. The author points out that there is nothing new about what these companies are doing save maybe a participatory, web-based layer at the front end.

I largely agree with the Gizmodo author and would add two things:

One of the major problems with the bits to atoms comparison is that there is no “view source” for atoms, at least yet. Factories and industrial equipment makers are loathe to share production info with individuals or small concerns.

There is too much focus on putting mini factories in garages and to little on how slightly lower barriers to entry can enable a class of “Pro-Am” product designers ala Lime Tree Cove.

Thanks to @CstCyr for the link.

Shapeways goes Hollywood

Or at least the Dutch equivalent. Shapeways 3D printing service was utilized by a creative agency to animate the intro to a popular kids shows. The process is similar to that used in the production of the film Coraline.

Glass Moai

The Open 3D Printing Forum at the University of Washington is doing really neat work with glass 3D printing. The process is similar to that of ZCorp, but instead of dipping the models in glue at the end the parts are fired in a kiln. The result is something between fine glass art and “Shrinky-Dinks” These Cubist Moai are just one of many neat projects you will find at Open3DP.

The reaction to the iPad has been wildly varied. It has been criticized widely as being a blown up iPod. Antonio provides a more nuanced view with his chief critique being that it is a content consuming device, rather than a content producing devices. One of Apple’s biggest critics is excited about the device’s potential. My take is similar to O’Reilly editor Edd Dumbill who calls it “Real Life Social“.

The iPod touch changed computer usage by making it fit in the hand and by proxy the couch, bed, bathroom, and many other places 1 and 0’s were never intended to go. This trend is going to continue and explode as entrepreneurs continue making software, but more importantly, develop accessories for the iPad and its tinier cousin. I look at the iPad less as a stand alone device and more as a computational module that can be inserted into a variety of environments. Accessories might be simple holders or electronics that augment the iPad’s capabilities, but the computer is going to become integrated in places that were impossible with previous form factors.

The Kitchen

Photo Credit: LifeHacker

A computer that works in the kitchen has been the subject of many weekend projects/concepts that painfully port the keyboard and mouse experience into a bustiling and dirty environment. The iPad will be a smooth solution. Imagine being able to watch cooking instruction videos in context. Cookbook creators, gourmet food retailers, and culinary content providers all have a new opportunity for interaction.

The Game Room

Smart toys like Lego Mindstorms are handicapped by the realities of retail. $300 is the upper boundary for a toy. The retailer needs ~$150 of that, and the manufacturer has marketing expenses and margins to maintain, so the costs are driven down leading to crappy products like those made by Wowee. The “iPlatform” has the capability to change this equilibrium. By utilizing the computational power of an iPod or iPad, toy manufacturers could forgo the need for embedded electronics and focus on accessories that tap into the pre-existing hardware. Instead of buying the Mindstorms with their expensive processing brick, you can buy the wheels, sensors, and structural elements which are far cheaper and pair them with an iPod. Parents can amortize one electronic device purchase over several toys

The Art Studio

Some frustrated and talented designer is going to make a pen accessory that gives the iPad true tablet capabilities. It will transmit pressure data via Bluetooth or dock connector and then it is game time for artists/designers. Stand by apps like Brushes or Sketchbook Pro will be fine, but we will also see instructional apps that teach people to draw, or animate, or paint. They will create on the iPad and share to the web. A simple input device could lead to a Renaissance in artistic instruction.

The Workbench

Crafts and hobbies are a $30B market in the US, compared to retail sales of music which are worth ~$9B. We have hundreds of start ups and purpose built devices dedicated to  listening/storing/enjoying music. The iPad is the iPod for the workbench. Instead of having a wrench laid across an issue of Make: or a laptop open to an Instructable, now you can have a special screen for displaying content in a dynamic fashion. This will be the perfect platform for companies like 5Min or HowCast. Laptops and television are both imperfect solutions for this opportunity, but the iPad fits perfectly.

The really exciting opportunity will be hooking the iPad up to popular personal fabrication devices like CNC sewing machines that are driven by digital designs. The iPad will enable a true meeting of bits and atoms.

The Gym

FitBit, Nike+, WakeMate, and many others are trying to augment exercise with contextual data and instruction. While each has a proprietary dongle to collect data, there needs to be a central dashboard. The small (and easily cleaned) iPlatform is the best solution available.

The Classroom

The iPad is going to allow publishers to reinvent books. The first wave will be simple translations with some embedded video in place of a static picture. However, think of what the possibilities are just a few years on. Text books created with open ended curriculum in mind could be incredibly powerful tools. Apply the editorial guidance of professional publishers and the hypertext capabilities we love from the web and there is tremendous opportunity for learning.

The Doctor’s Office, The Trade Show Floor, Training Programs…

There are dozen of other markets that the iPad could serve. Any interaction not yet mediated by the computer is fair game. Wherever there is paper or a sales brochure the iPad can probably improve the experience. The device has a lot of intrinsic faults, but luckily they are less bothersome than the  annoyances and missed opportunities found in the physical world.

Photo Credit: Andrew Plumb @ClothBot

The Solido SD300 Pro will be the first fully assembled 3D printer to be sold at the sub $5,000 price first promised by the Desktop Factory. The price shown in this trade show graphic is $2,950, but it may be an introductory deal only.

The Solido SD uses Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) which glues thin sheets of plastic together and cuts out the excess on each layer. The technology is robust, using sturdy spray nozzles and knives rather than failure prone heated elements or chemicals. It is inexpensive, but can produce technically impressive parts. Excess material can be recycled for credit towards your next order. Walls can be as thing as 1mm (for reference the wall of an electronic device will typically be 1-1.5mm). The Solido has some drawbacks, but overall it is a great and attainable 3D printers for schools or dedicated hobbyists.

The Solido folks use a bit of soft focus in their photos, but this is a realistic depiction of the surface finish you will get with a LOM machine:

It will be interesting to see how the MakerBot team responds to this. The Solido beats the MakerBot on two critical criteria (though the MakerBot is $2000 less, excluding labor):

Build Size

MakerBot – 100 x 100 x 130 mm
Solido – 160 x 235 x 135 mm

Resolution

MakerBot – 0.3725 mm layer thickness
Solido – 0.168 mm layer thickness

Add to that the plug and play simplicity of the Solido, the need for maintenance on the MakerBot and you wonder how many potential customers will trade up for the simpler and more robust solution. Especially in the educational/institutional realm where there is a track record of heated reaction to exposed breadboards and colored wire.

See images of five Solido capabilities after the break:

The Solido can do quite a few things well:

Fine detail and Organic Shapes:

Internal Cavities:

Electronic Enclosures:

Large Parts:

Functional Mechanical Components:

Micron smooth plastics are a an indicator of professionalism in consumer products. Anyone with a credit card can have a 3D print made at a great printing service, but the cost and complexity of injection molding keeps it limited to professionals. At least that is what I thought until reading Chris Anderson’s new article about Atoms being the New Bits. He talks about BrickArms a one man operation that makes period authentic weapons for Lego Minifigs using a bench top injection molding machine.

In the article Anderson mentions that early prototypes are made with a mini mill and a hand powered injection molding machine. I was unaware that these machines existed, but a quick google search shows they are available for under $1,500.

If you are unfamiliar with the process, I’ve included a video below, but it is the manufacturing technique used to make most consumer products. Your alarm clock was almost certainly injection molded.

These tools have serious limitations in size and quality. To be effective it will also need to be paired with a CNC mill to make nicely polished mold. The biggest limitation is probably size, but if you are looking to do short run prototypes of a fairly small device, the injection molding process is a great way to make your product seem more professional.

If $1,500 is too steep, you might have some success hacking an old Kenner MoldMaster if you can find one. The MoldMaster was an injection molding toy sold in the 1960’s that allowed boys of the time to manufacture their own toy soldiers, tanks, and other playthings. It required the use of scalding metals and plastics so it didn’t last long on the market, but the basic principle is the same as the professional models. Unfortunately, none are currently available on Ebay.

The Foresight Institute is offering the Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize (An X-Prize like grant) for creating a better RepRap 3D Printing system. The prize is two-tiered with $100K total up for grabs. The organization is trying to create a manufacturing tool to benefit developing nations. The requirements are:

• Print at least three different materials, including one that is usefully electrically conductive.
• The ability to print electronic circuit boards.
• Print beds must be of a material which may be reused with minimal refurbishment for at least 20 print cycles.
• Maintain a total materials and parts cost under $200 and that 90% of the volume of the printer parts be printed.
• Demonstrate a build volume of the printer above 300×300x100mm in order to insure that items daily utility can be printed.
• The capacity to print a full set of parts for a complete replica of itself within 10 days unattended save for clearing no more than one printer head jam.
• The ability to print autonomously without a PC attached.
• Uses no more than 60 watts of electrical power.

The aims of the prize are noble, but they are overly burdensome. The most technically advanced 3D printer in the world could not come close to reaching these goals. A humble RepScrap would have a hard time meeting the cost target. If the goal is to provide a tool that would help the developing world, this should not be the PRD.

The benefits of 3D Printing are rapid iteration and the flexibility to create complex geometries in a one off basis. Both of these things would have utility in the developing world, but adding a bunch of technological wizardry is going to hurt the project. Much like the OLPC, this project is focused on an arbitrary goal. In this case self reproduction vs. the $100 price. Imagine the use case is Hati, would users want something like the 3D printer that creates shelters created by Behrokh Khoshnevis or the ability to manufacture PCB’s? No current manufacturing tool could reproduce itself, with the help of an operator, never mind autonomously. Why make this a requirement?

Cynically it seems the prize is set up never to have to be paid out. In any case, choosing one or two of these requirements could lead to amazing innovation in the space, so hopefully some team will take up the challenge anyway.

Wired Takes on Bits and Atoms

Chris Anderson, creator of the “Long Tail” meme and Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine has written what will be the most influential feature on custom manufacturing to date, titled: In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits. It is a must read if for no other reason it will shape the thinking of everyone else on the subject. The content will likely be old news to most readers of this blog but there are many interesting tidbits in the feature.

MakerBot Cars and the Hot Rod Culture

@ClothBot shared this image from @Lossif showing off some model cars made with the MakerBot. The MakerBot is still a “Hot Rod” platform in that the object you print out or the machine operator can have a significant impact on the outcome. Compare these cars to the portrait below. Scale, design, and skill lead to very different outcomes.

Shapeways Mini Link-O Rama

Joris has been on fire with blog posts and tweets that are too good not to pass along:

1. Articulated Robot Printed in 3D

An amazing follow up by a distinguished Shapeways community member.

2. Interview with Bre Pettis of MakerBot

This  interview covers the basics of MakerBot with a little more human interest than usual. Proposals for questions for future interviewers:

a. How are you going to mainstream MakerBot? Distribution partnerships? Internal expansion?

b. How will you continue to develop the project without infringing on patents of Stratasys that haven’t expired yet?

c. How would you react to an established company taking your open source kit and offering a slightly more expensive version (~$2,500) with better sales and support?

3. Podcasts on manufacturing

The University of Cambridge has a collection of short podcasts covering manufacturing from a macro policy level down to the future on inkjet micro manufacturing.

How 3D Printing Informs the Design Process

Josh at SolidSmack shared a video that does a nice job explaining how 3D printing can be used in the design process to improve product quality while reducing cycle time, in the context of high performance eye wear.

Core 77 Covers The Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction Conference at MIT

Core77 has a nice round up of work presented at MIT’s Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction Conference. Most of the projects are highly conceptual, but show off how exciting a world that combines walnut woodgrain with the World Wide Web could be.

140 characters just doesn’t do justice to some folks so here are five folks you should follow on Twitter with a few sentences explaining why. @JosephFlaherty is also a great person to follow!

Joris Peels (@Pilz)

Joris is Shapeways Community manager helping to spread the word about the wonders of 3D printing. He is also a prolific theorist giving name to the “Singer Problem” AND “Pizza Comparison“, both of which sound funny, but are good frameworks to use when thinking about 3D Printing.

AnnMarie Thomas Ph.D. (@annmarie-thomas)

Professor of engineering, designer, and trapeze enthusiast. She teaches classes like “Squishy Circuits”, the “Science of the Circus”, and “Toy Design”. She studied oceanographic engineering and music at MIT. Seems like she would be the best dinner party guest ever.

Jeff Potter (@cookingforgeeks)

Jeff is working on a book/blog called Cooking for Geeks. Food prep is the most basic form of personal fabrication and Jeff is working on some interesting projects e.g. this is the first blog I’ve seen where a trout is hooked up to a breadboard (The electronic variety).

Will Langford (@LangfordW)

Will is an undergraduate engineering student at Tufts and the owner of not one, but TWO MakerBots (He was an intern there). He makes cool things. I’m most impressed with his use of the MakerBot to iteratively design an Arduino based robot. MakerBot has a lot of short comings, but this project is an example of where I think it will flourish, STEM education.

Angus MacLane (@AngusMacLane)

Angus is an animator at Pixar, but also the creator of the “CubeDudes” which are highly stylized homages to pop culture icons made of Lego. The sculptures are wildly inventive interpreting highy stylized object and characters with a limited palette of Lego parts. See Han Solo in Carbonite, Geordi LaForge (and his visor), Max from “Where the Wild Things Are“, Transformers, and more. The combination of Lego and other geek favorites is nothing new, but the artful use of specialty parts sets these apart.