Boingboingtv has a good video up in which Phil Torrone, editor of Make magazine, shows us some of his favourite projects from Maker Faire 2008 last weekend. These include soft toy electronics, ‘fablabs’ and the “brain machine”. Phil comments a little on the links between the maker movement, the affordablilty of digital fabrication, and the future of product personalisation.
Its good to get a little insight into the goings on at Maker Faire when I’m stuck over on this side of the atlantic - there’s such a vibrant network of makers out there, hopefully one day I’ll be able to attend a Maker faire myself!
Update:
There’s also an interesting perspective from the businessmen at Forbes.com here. Some chat with Make magazine, Bleep Labs and Mitch Altman on the reasoning behind DIY product success stories. The emphasis on the need for building a product community and sharing (and thus flexible licensing I surmise) is interesting.
Ok, just to keep things interesting let’s take a quick look at some of the weirder tangents of 3D printing before we examine the process itself.
The Second Life phenomenon has already made it’s way back into the physical world, for a while now. Although now offline?, Fabjectory(site may be down) had been offering a service where you can have your Second Life avatar 3D printed so you could have little desktop version of your virtual self. Image found via Michael Buckbee’s Fabjectory Flickr site
Design shop Schulze & Webb Ltd developed the Availabot as part of their 2006 graduate exhibition at the RCA “Availabot is a physical representation of presence in Instant Messenger applications. Availabot plugs into your computer by USB, stands to attention when your chat buddy comes online, and falls down when they go away. It’s a presence-aware, peripheral-vision USB toy… and because the puppets are made in small numbers on a rapid-prototyping machine, it can look just like you.”
Now Ponoko people who do not yet have ready access to 3D printing technology need not miss out with Pepakura Designer paper folding software.
found via Export to World, a project created by Linda Kostowski and Sascha Pohflepp for Ars Electronica 2007. The Export to World site has a great tutorial on how to export your Second Life objects into the real world. Sorry fellow Mac people this is P.C. only and you will need to download Ogle and Pepakura to get this happening. But in the end you can fold your own paper version of your virtual object…..
This is stringing a long bow, but it opens doors to new ways of thinking of 3D fabrication. What if instead of sucking data out of Second Life you modeled a piece of jewelry in 3d software, exported to Pepakura, modified the file to send to Ponoko, and folded your material of choice?? (You Tube link to how to make your own plastic bender courtesy of Tap Plastics (with a great jingle)).
Speaking of DIY 3D solutions, in future posts we will also be taking a look at home made 3D printers like the Fabaroni, the 3D printing machine that constructs 3D models with pasta dough from MIT…
(Hector Serrano’s Reduced Carbon Footprint Souvenirs via dezeen.com)
The next time you travel abroad, think hard before you pick up those chintzy trinkets that surround every tourist attraction - miniature Eiffel Towers or tiny statues of the Sphinx. If you’ve read the Story of Stuff, you’ll know that the souvenirs that fill those shelves were probably mass produced elsewhere then transported thousands of miles to get to the dozens of tiny souvenir shops that swarm around the tourist attraction.
Hector Serrano got creative with his reduced carbon footprint souvenir project, which he created for the Ten Again exhibition of exploring sustainable design. His concept bypasses the traditional cycle of manufacturing and consuming. You send an email to your friend along with a “souvenir” which can be printed out on a 3D printer:
Accessibility to 3D printers is still not so widespread, but it’s becoming closer and closer to hitting mainstream. And while this may not be the first priority in reducing our general carbon footprint, it’s an interesting idea of how such a “little thing” as buying your friend or co-worker a souvenir can cost so much in externalized costs. With 430 million international tourists worldwide (2006), I can pretty much guarantee that a majority of those tourists are buying something to take back home - like the obligatory souvenirs to co-workers, neighbors who watched your house and fed your cat, family and friends who didn’t get to go.
So why just stop with souvenirs? With Ponoko, people could similarly reduce their carbon footprint by creating gifts for people, without having to buy or ship it themselves. Personally designed jewelry (see other people’s samples in the showroom), artwork or other small accessories for your loved one to put together - and all designed by you. It’s one small step, but millions of small steps will surely make a huge impact.
I’ve been wanting a roomba for quite a while now, but I find this little OAWR much more entertaining. This robot likes to scamper around and tries to avoid things ( or at least walks around or away from them.) Sure, it doesn’t vacuum, but it’s fun to watch and play with. Maker Clement Fletcher also makes a very good point about robot toys: they’re more fun to build yourself than to buy.
His OAWR is made up of a motor, acrylic legs, and “whiskers” to feel out obstacles. While the motor parts can be bought, he gives 3 options on making the legs - either using a scroll saw and drill, using Ponoko (which he used - great choice!), or using a laser-cutter you have access to. Assembled and wired up, here’s the OAWR in action:
(via Wired: 10″x10″x12″ 3D printer at Frog Design)
3D printers have been hitting the headlines again. This time, Wired spoke with Joe Hebenstreit from Frog Design in Palo Alto, CA and Scott Summit of SummitID in San Francisco about the changing role of the 3D printer. It’s no longer just for prototypes. With advanced capabilities in using different materials, speed and size, they’re being used more and more for finished products.
A while back I wrote about Janne Kyttanen from Freedom of Creation (FOC), whose digital designs are available on his website. Once ordered, the product is printed out and shipped to the customer - very much a “just-in-time” manufacturing/fulfillment cycle. Something we believe is a good model.
If you follow this blog or follow the whole electronics DIY maker movement, you’re probably familiar with RepRap.org. This is an open source project with the goal of creating a self-replicating rapid prototyper (3D printer). Over at Bre Pettis’s I Make Things (also at Makezine Blog), you’ll find the first in a series of Makezine Weekend Project video tutorial on how to make a RepRap robot. This week they’re working on the electronics part of the RepRap robot, like the stepper boards, motor controller board, and arduinos. After watching the video, you can download their PDFcast for more details and links. In upcoming weekend project videos they’ll be working on the hardware and software. So stay tuned!
The movement for democratizing fabrication is making waves. At the Maker Faire in Austin on the weekend, these few makers sat down together to discuss how to spread the word to the masses about digital tools and machines. While there are a few who have heard about these tools and are aware of the capabilities and the technology that we have now, there are even fewer who have actually used them or have access to them, or even want to use them. We hope we’re doing our part on this blog.
While nothing concrete came out of the summit, there is at least a direction towards educating the younger crowd with working on things that they know and are cool, i.e. laser engraving their ipods and cellphones. I think this whole DIY/maker movement is going to only get bigger and stronger. There are just more and more resources and web apps that are aimed at empowering users to create and make their own things.
Another group aside from the makers are scientific groups such as those behind CRN, Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, who for the past five years have been introducing the concept of molecular manufacturing and the entailing responsibilities. While what they’re focused on is nanotechnologies, they see the first step towards getting mainstream is in fabbers - such as 3D printers. While their original challenge was to convince people that this technology was indeed true and available, they now focus on when this will all happen. To find out more about what they’re about, here’s their recent post on Making Fabbers Real.
If you’re new to the blog, you may wonder why I’m writing about this. You can quietly disregard the robot and human augmentation part (unless you’re truly intrigued). It’s the 3D printing, personal manufacturing, rapid prototyping part — this is all the stuff we’re fascinated with and truly see as a core part of how we will make and buy things in the future. From the 2007 Gartner Symposium/ITXpo in Orlando, Jackie Fenn presented the emerging trends they see on their IT radar in the next 10 years:
I’d like to draw your attention to 3D printers in the 5 - 10 year range:
Personal manufacturing and fabbing: Fenn says that 3D printers will be coming to a Kinko’s near you in the not too distant future. Today, these printers are used for industrial prototyping, product designs and architectural models. But there is a growing hobbyist movement. In a few years, you’ll see home-based printing of replacement parts. Your kids will print out models of their avatars. These printers, which come from companies like Z Corporation, are in the $20,000 price range–the price range where laser printers got their start. Timeline: 5 to 10 years.
For the Ponoko community, the exchanging of designs with the ability to manufacture at home or at a local 3D printing shop is where we want to be. At the moment, current digital manufacturing technologies are right up there allowing us to do some fantastic work. But when fabbers hit mainstream, we’ll be ready (and so will Ponoko users!).
We know that lots of Americans have been waiting …. and now we can announce that MyPonoko is available to the USA. So get out your sketch pads America and start designing and making.
Want to just browse and buy? Like all community sites we depend on you to add your designs and products, this will take some time so the showroom is limited at the moment. But do keep checking in since more designs will be added on as we grow and as you add your designs.
There are few caveats we should let you know about. While the whole site is fully functional and accessible, we are still in beta which means (among other things) that the manufacturing is based outside of the USA for now. The goal is to for the community to enable “personal manufacturing” through a network of digital manufacturers located globally. This is where we need your help to make this possible sooner rather than later. If you know of any digital manufacturers in your neck of the woods, please let us know! Any bureau with laser-cutting, CNC routers and 3D printing services and facilities would fit the “digital manufacturer” label. By spreading the word about Ponoko, our network of small manufacturers will cut down on shipping costs, cause less environmental damage and make the manufacturing process transparent. Ultimately this will completely change the way you create, make and buy. If you have a supplier to refer you can do it right here. And as a little added motivation we’re offering free shipping on your next purchase to people who do refer manufacturers who become accredited Ponoko suppliers.
And a personal note to our Ponoko team from co-founder Derek Elley:
Congratulations to Sally, John, Nahum and Paul who have listened to the Ponoko community over the past 3 weeks, fixed the key issues and today have made MyPonoko live to 300 million Amercians! Way to go guys.
Business 2.0 recently listed The Next Disrupters - 15 companies that will change the world by rewriting how things are done. Ponoko’s not on there — yet — but another startup company, Desktop Factory, is. With a goal of making 3D printers as common as your laser printer in offices, schools and homes, this company is set to make a very affordable 3D printer at about $5,000, compared with the commercial ones out there that retail for $20,000 on up. That’s a big goal, considering so many people don’t even know what 3D printers are. I’d say only in the past couple years has rapid prototyping been making mainstream news. Until recently 3D printers were so expensive and out-of-reach - reserved only for large companies and manufacturers with deep pockets - examples given were Boeing and Logitech, costing upwards of 100K+ ten years ago. Now we’re hearing more often than not of new models being released at prices that keep getting lower and lower.
So, does Moore’s Law apply to 3D printers as well? I’m probably applying this extremely loosely to 3D printers, but the point it - the technology is getting faster, better and cheaper - all leading to more accessibility to more people who in turn use them in a wider range of environments and uses. From Motley Fool:
If the price continues to plummet, the number of companies using these machines could explode. This will be especially true as a new generation of designers comes to understand that they can easily create complex shapes and parts to produce new products that were previously too expensive, if not impossible, to manufacture.
Wohlers Associates, a consulting firm specializing in tracking development in the emerging field of rapid prototype manufacturing, has estimated that the market for these machines will grow 360% to 15,000 units by 2012.
There’s no doubt 3D printers will become more mainstream in the very near future. Where it’ll be about the exchange of designs, rather than the exchange of actual physical things, putting more control into the consumer’s hand at “manufacturing” a whole design or even just parts and pieces at home or office on their 3D printer or at their local digital manufacturer.
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