ELF began as a design project last October and the quadcopter is now complete. You can pick up a kit now for $65 on Indiegogo or simply print out the parts yourself for free. DIYers will also have to buy the motors and electronics but with the ubiquity of DIY manufacturing tools that’s far easier than it sounds these days.

The drone is quite small but it can take and transmit video. The team hopes that users will stream the 720p video camera output to a VR device like Google Cardboard and the whole package snaps together without screws or glue.

The company plans to ship in July and it looks like they’ve completely beat their goal funding goal.

Source: Techcrunch.com

Andy Rudenko wanted to 3D print a castle to prove to the world that modern day construction could go much beyond stacking concrete blocks on top of each other, according to 3DPrint.com."When I started out, people struggled to believe this project would progress any further," explained Rudenko. The structure isn’t quite as tall as the trees surrounding it, but it does look big enough to walk around in.

The architect did run into minor obstacles like the extruder clogging, but overall, the castle does looks gorgeous. His next move? 3D printing an entire house. Head over to 3DPrint.com to see more pictures of the castle. [3DPrint.com via Engadget]

Source: Gizmodo.com

The research team at Disney Research Zurich and the University of Zaragoza took inspiration from the classical sculptors, who created lifelike representations of hair using solid forms rather than trying to capture the shape and size of individual hairs:

Beginning with several color images captured of the subject’s head, the system firstcomputes a coarse geometry for the surface of the hair. Color information from the images is then added, matching the colors to the rough geometry to the extent possible. In the next step, color stylization, the level of detail is reduced enough to enable the representation to be miniaturized and reproduced, while preserving the hairstyle’s defining features. Finally, geometric details are added in a way that is consistent with the color stylization.

The result is a delightfully realistic 3D-printed figurine. The technique can be used for hairstyles, facial hair, and even recreating fuzzy objects like stuffed animals, as shown in the Disney Research video below.

Disney Research will present this technique at SIGGRAPH 2014, the computer graphics conference in Vancouver that starts tomorrow. Pretty soon, you could have a 3D printed mini-twin for every hairstyle you’ve ever tried. [Disney Research]

Source: Gizmodo.com

A research paper by, Scott E. Hudson of CMU’s Human-Computer Interaction Institutedetails the system and shows how the printer can make almost any shape out of almost any fibrous material. Like plastic 3D printers, the machine lays down the fiber in long threads and connects them by poking the fiber with a barbed needle.

As you can see from the video above, you’re not getting Teddy Ruxpin here. Instead, you get something that looks more like a crocheted bear with one flat side. However, because the material is so malleable, you could feasibly created things in any shape or even design objects that can connect together to make clothing or quilts.

Because these objects are felted together they are not quite as solid as, say, a crocheted doll or doily. However, the fibers create a solid mass, suitable for wearing, hugging, or snuggling.

“I really see this material being used for things that are held close,” Hudson said. “We’re really extending the set of materials available for 3D printing and opening up new possibilities for what can be manufactured.”

The system uses standard, open source printer software to prepare and print the objects and, as we see in the video above, it’s a great hit with babies.

Source: Techcrunch.com

Gunnarsson self-funded the entire project and aims to make money by offering downloadable content – monsters and pieces – and allowing users to share and sell their models.

“We just launched for the iPad a couple of weeks ago on the iOS app store and the reaction so far from the maker community has been pretty awesome,” said Gunnarsson. “We’re just getting started.”

“We created Modio to be easy to use even for a five year old, but still powerful enough so that an adult can have a lot of fun with it. With Modio anybody can make amazing, fully pose-able models and then easily 3D print them,” he said. “The user interface is simple to use and designed for touch devices like the iPad – simply drag and drop the built-in parts to build. The parts snap together just like in reality and then you can play with your model in the app and pose the parts any way you want. The app supports multi-touch fully, so you can move multiple parts around simultaneously and more than one user can even create at the same time.

The app can print things in multiple sizes and all of the pieces are flat on the bottom. The joints automatically resize and change when you add parts and the entire system measures the amount of filament that will be used and the speed of the print. In all, it’s a very unique toy-making system for kids and adults.

“I’ve been fascinated with 3D printing for a long time,” said Gunnarsson. “I realized however that for 3D printing to really take off you need a lot of content optimized for 3D printing. There are now a lot of printers on the market, but there’s this content gap where people don’t really know what they should make with these devices. At the same time our kids are playing more and more computer games and doing less and less creative things, so we need to get them excited about making cool stuff again.”

I saw a number of prints created with the system and they are surprisingly cool, reminiscent of the Hero Factory line of Lego toys. However, because you can resize the models at will, you can make tiny insectoids or giant mech monsters. It’s really fun. In fact, the founder, who has three boys of his own, found out how addictive his app was when one of his son’s school friends came over to play. Instead of hopping on Minecraft, the friend became engrossed in Modio and played with it for hours.

The next day he came back… to play with the app some more. Needless to say, Gunnarsson’s son was quite upset.

Source: Techcrunch.com

Co-founders Saeed Arida, David Wang and Saba Ghole started NuVu Studio as a way to apply their dissertation theory, which claims that kids as young as 13 are capable of working on design and engineering projects normally reserved for those at the master’s level.

By the looks of several projects involving medical devices, a game that helps you lose weight and a modular telepresence robot you can control from far away, the theory seems to be correct.

The program integrates several engineering and design principles. But Arida says that when he frames it to prospective students as something of a creative-learning program instead of as an engineering or math-oriented one, everyone gets excited.

“We actually don’t go into an emphasis on engineering. We just say we want to teach you the creative process and then when you are trying to create the project you need a lot of engineering,” he says.

The program does more than just teach kids 3D printing, design and engineering principles, although Arida admits there’s probably not a single project that doesn’t incorporate the use of Arduino at some point.

“We wanted to show people how you can create a school that is different…What the school of the future can look like,” says Arida, whose dissertation research at MIT was in creative problem solving and collaboration in K-12.

NuVu students participate in the program for three to nine months at a time and collaborate in several creative projects. Some of them, like the short film that students Sam Diatzman and Christopher Smith produced on security issues after the Boston bombing, equip students with an understanding of screen writing and film production.

The program started four years ago out of a local private school with just a handful of kids. It now includes a diverse group of kids from both public and private schools. There are 28 in this year’s class — 20 come from public and charter schools in the area. And though engineering tends to be male-dominated, Arida says an equal number of boys and girls attend the program.

Arida says the students from previous classes have gone on to Harvard, MIT and Stanford. When I asked if they choose engineering or design studies after participating in NuVu, Arida tells me they don’t. “They’re actually shocked they don’t get to do the same stuff we do in the lab until they are in a master’s program. It can be frustrating for them.”

Arida and co-founders would like to change the school system so that more kids get this kind of opportunity and exposure. Arida says they also plan to expand the project nationwide, but that will take a while. Ten other schools have adopted the NuVu Studio project so far.

There are no special requirements for students interested in the program, according to Arida. They just need a willingness to learn.

Source: Techcrunch.com