Bunker.jordan

Innovation in 3d printing started to show up from the 1990s with the real surge in the activity around this technology happening in the last 5 years. For those who are interested in 3D printing and its patents, Gridlogics Technologies, a software products company has shared some interesting results from a recent report on analysis of patenting activity around 3D-Printing from 1990-Current.

This article An analysis of patenting activity around 3D printing from 1990-current is first published at 3ders.org.

Deepti Nair and Harikrishnan Panicker (known collectively as Hari & Deepti) are an artist couple who create paper cut light boxes. Each diorama is made from layers of cut watercolor paper placed inside a shadow box and is lit from behind with flexible LED light strips. The small visual narratives depicted in each work often play off aspects of light including stars, flames, fireflies, and planets. The couple shares about their work:

Paper is brutal in its simplicity as a medium. It demands the attention of the artist while it provides the softness they need to mold it in to something beautiful. It is playful, light, colorless and colorful. It is minimal and intricate. It reflects light, creates depth and illusions in a way that it takes the artist through a journey with limitless possibilities.

What amazes us about the paper cut light boxes is the dichotomy of the piece in its lit and unlit state, the contrast is so stark that it has this mystical effect on the viewers.

Hari & Deepti are originally from India but now live and work in Denver. Their work most recently appeared at SCOPE New York through Black Book Gallery. (via Hi-Fructose, My Modern Met)

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Near the heart of Scotland lies a large morass known as Dullatur Bog. Water seeps from these moistened acres and coalesces into the headwaters of a river which meanders through the countryside for nearly 22 miles until its terminus in Glasgow. In the late 19th century this river adorned the landscape just outside of the laboratory of Sir William Thompson, renowned scientist and president of the Royal Society. The river must have made an impression on Thompson–when Queen Victoria granted him the title of Baron in 1892, he opted to adopt the river’s name as his own. Sir William Thompson was thenceforth known as Lord Kelvin.

Kelvin’s contributions to science were vast, but he is perhaps best known today for the temperature scale that bears his name. It is so named in honor of his discovery of the coldest possible temperature in our universe. Thompson had played a major role in developing the Laws of Thermodynamics, and in 1848 he used them to extrapolate that the coldest temperature any matter can become, regardless of the substance, is -273.15°C (-459.67°F). We now know this boundary as zero Kelvin.

Once this absolute zero temperature was decisively identified, prominent Victorian scientists commenced multiple independent efforts to build machines to explore this physical frontier. Their equipment was primitive, and the trappings were treacherous, but they pressed on nonetheless, dangers be damned. There was science to be done.

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In her second experimental clip exploring the effect of sound waves on lycopodium powder, filmmaker Susie Sie just released this new propmotial video for high-end audio system manufacturer Burkhardtsmaier. The super fine (and super flammable) powder made of clubmoss spores creates fascinating patterns and forms as it vibrates due to a subwoofer positioned just below the surface. If you liked this you’ll also like her previous short Cymatics.

Joshua Harker: 21st Century Self-Portrait:

21st Century Self-Portrait

Based on a 3D scan of his face & CT scan of his skull, coupled with his filigree aesthetic the piece allows both forms to be viewed simultaneously juxtaposing the newfound reaches of our vision, discovery & technology against our vulnerability, privacy & humanity. The disembodied head suggests our increasing digital disconnect from the physical world & reexamination of reality.  Exhibit debut at 3D Print Show New York, February 12th-15th.

The Digital 3D Portrait Project:  

Announcing Joshua’s custom portrait sculpture project, launching on the Uformit mass customization marketplace. An exploration into the latest technologies applied to one of the oldest themes in art… the portrait. Using his ”21st Century Self-Portrait” the Uformia software allows Joshua to swap face scans while accurately transferring the design. Ultimately the software, in concert with forensic facial reconstruction science, will also accurately morph the skull to match the new face… a 21st century portrait in every way. The custom portrait masks are now available here.

Read More.

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!

The modern Battlestar Galactica has launched a thousand cosplays. The dress uniforms, crew jumpsuits, and Viper Pilot flightsuits worn by the cast all make awesome costumes. RPF user Felgacarb did a wonderful job re-creating one of the pilot costumes from textured vinyl, foam, and more. It looks close to screen accurate. Here’s how he made the shoulder pieces rigid enough to stand on their own:

I used heavy suede, with vinyl piping on the edges and backing, plus the dot-material sewn on. All that together was pretty stiff- so I ‘trained’ it by putting heavy objects to hold the shoulder parts folded until they took a set. They seem to stay in shape on their own pretty well now.

Read more at The RPF.

• Eating chocolate linked to reduced heart disease risk
• Scientists halve fat content of chocolate using fruit substitutes
• Chocolate lovers rejoice: More chocolate means less body fat
• Le Whif - chocolate consumed by inhaling
• Cadbury develops chocolate that won't melt at high temperatures
• Promising antibacterial coating created from green tea and salt

• Kepler’s five-year tally: 961 new planets
• Kepler discovers smallest habitable-zone Earth-like planets to date
• Kepler spacecraft discovers tiniest solar system yet found
• NASA's Kepler finds exoplanet smaller than Mercury
• Kepler strikes exoplanet mother lode, 715 new planets discovered
• NASA: mission accomplished, Kepler – now look harder still

• LED-equipped cork turns wine bottles into lamps
• FLEXR Sports Bottle uses biodegradable liner to reduce germs
• Vapur introduces foldable water bottle with built-in filter
• Kangaroo Water Bottle has a compartment for your essentials
• Vargo's Titanium BOT combines cooking pot and water bottle
• Bobble bottles offer instant filtered water, on the go

• First step towards carbon-free ‘power-plant’
• Plug into a plant: A new approach to clean energy harvesting
• Researchers develop self-assembling, self-repairing photovoltaic technology
• Bioglow sheds new light on indoor plants
• Tropical frog inspires new way to convert solar energy to biofuel
• Genetically modified microorganism could convert atmospheric CO2 into fuel

Momentum is a project by artist Alejandro Guijarro who spent three years traveling to the quantum mechanics departments of Cambridge, Stanford, Berkeley, Oxford and elsewhere to shoot large format photographs of blackboards just after lectures. Completely removed from the context of a classroom or laboratory and displayed in a gallery, the cryptic equations from one of the most formidable branches of physics become abstract patterns of line and color. Via the artist’s statement:

Before he walks into a lecture hall Guijarro has no idea what he will find. He begins by recording the blackboard with the minimum of interference. No detail of the lecture hall is included, the blackboard frame is removed and we are left with a surface charged with abstract equations. At this stage they are documents. However, once removed from their institutional beginnings the meaning evolves. The viewer begins to appreciate the equations for their line and form. Colour comes into play and the waves created by the blackboard eraser suggest a vast landscape or galactic setting. The formulas appear to illustrate the worlds of Quantum Mechanics. What began as a precise lecture, a description of the physicist’s thought process, is transformed into a canvas open to any number of possibilities.

Guijarro graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2010 with a MA in fine art and now lives
and works in both London and Madrid. He’ll have work later this year at PhotoEspaña. (via Not Shaking the Grass)

• ESA juices up for mission to Jupiter’s icy moons
• ESA to launch mission to study elusive gravitational waves
• Distant galaxy opens window into the early universe
• Got eyes? Help find gravitational lenses!
• NASA confirms the origin of cosmic rays
• Dark matter filaments detected for the first time

Innovation Economy – 25 Makers Who Are Reinventing the American Dream – Popular Mechanics @PopMech – Limor “Ladyada” Fried @adafruit.

Now, as never before, DIYers are empowered to design, manufacture, and market their creations. Call it the maker movement, a fresh industrial revolution, or the new innovation economy. By any name, it’s a great time to be an innovator. And these visionaries are leading the way.

READ MORE – Our Ladyada is featured along with a whole bunch of awesome makers!

While working on her master’s degree at MIT, Limor Fried used to relax at night by building synthesizers and other DIY electronics projects, then posting the instructions online. After fans started asking for help locating parts, she launched Adafruit. The company now sells electronics kits with open-source licenses, encouraging would-be inventors to experiment and have fun. The popular MintyBoost, for example, is a mobile-device charger housed in an Altoids-size tin. Fried’s site includes vibrant forums and video tutorials, and she awards badges for coding and welding. Her work is clearly making an impact: After watching the pink-haired engineer’s webcasts, one girl asked her father, “Are there any boy engineers?”

Mission statement: Fried calls Adafruit “an educational company that just happens to have a gift shop at the end.”

Adam Harvey tipped me off to this cvdazzle-inspired Tumblr blog of hair and makeup looks for thwarting facial recognition surveillance technology.

BioShock was too scary for me to play, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the fantastic character designs in the game. Big Daddy made an impression, and Instructables user mikoto made the costume for a convention. She sourced supplies from stuff she found in the garage and Home Depot. Some of the materials include insulation, cardboard, jersey sheets, and a beach ball. It sounds like a game show challenge: “Using these random materials, build an impressive Big Daddy” costume. Well, mikoto would win because the finished build looks amazing.

She began by making the internal skeleton:

I started by cutting the R-Matte (RM) board into 3 – 3 ft sections. I then took and cut it into the rough cut=away shape. Also from the remaining R-matte board make a shoulder portion, a 3Ft circle for the front access port of the dome and then 2- 10″ circles for the arms.

After I had the rough shape I cut 5″in wide pieces of cardboard to tape in-between the RM board.

As I placed the cardboard I tried to form the end shape of the body. your best bet is to cut you form down to a more permanent size at this point, so that there is only about a 2 -3″ depth at the most from the cardboard to the top edge so that you don’t go through as much expandable foam as I did.

Leave about a 2ft x 3ft opening on the bottom for access. You will need this for entering the Cosplay and it leaves and opening so the you can set it up on a stand and work easier.

After this item is taped securely and is sturdy enough. cut out the inside so that you can insert a stand or support . I used the electric knife to cut out the inside. . Cut out just enough for your stand to fit in. if you try to hollow it out it will be unstable and collapse in on itself, this would also make it impossible to work with as it will move too much when cutting and shaping.

Also make the arm area with the 5″ cardboard pieces to make about a 10″ circle that will be the arm hole. Then fill the hole so to stabilizes it from collapsing.

Read more at Instructables.

"How many motorcycles should I have?" A question every motorcyclist asks themselves, has now been answered. Those Australians are brilliant. 

n + 1

The final formula for the exact amount of motorcycles you need to have.
Where n is the number of motorcycles you currently have.

[ source: 650nkownersclub.com.au | more funny stuff ]

“To conduct pressure tests in a safer manner, a water tank was constructed to encase the fuselage. It was submerged and filled with water, and then additional water was pumped into the cabin until the pressure inside the fuselage reached 1P, the equivalent of flight. This was then cycled to simulate many flights over the life of an aircraft.

“By using water instead of air, water being a much less compressible fluid, the test would be much safer and the fuselage would be able to be repaired and re-tested as necessary. Had air been used, the results would have resembled the catastrophic in-flight break-ups at Elba and Naples.”

- Federal Aviation Administration

• Super Mega Mega Toaster prints images on your bread
• Transparent toaster concept: pounce when it's perfect
• Bodum’s Bistro Flatbed Toaster expands your breakfast options
• Arzum Firrin takes a sideways approach to toasting bread
• TOASTit teflon bags transform your toaster into a grill
• Breville combines two breakfast favorites in one device

• Peugeot's elegant DL122 - the bicycle with a laptop compartment
• Prototype carrier turns a bike into a cargo trike
• The Kolelinia - a rush-hour bike-path in the sky
• Bicymple looks set to hit the road via crowdfunding route
• The Bicymple is the bicycle simplified, literally
• Seat-less bike design promises fitter children

In the late 90s researchers at the University of Washington created Busview, a Java applet that displayed Seattle bus locations on a map in real-time. It was ahead of its time and unfortunately was largely forgotten without ever seeing mainstream use. This changed in 2008 when Brian Ferris, another UW researcher, created OneBusAway. Brian used the data BusView had been silently aggregating for nearly a decade and built a simple mobile app that displays realtime arrival information for any bus stop. OneBusAway quickly became the ubiquitous Seattle transit app with over 100,000 monthly users.

Realtime arrival information is great, but I always missed the live birds-eye view of the city's transit that BusView provided and thought it would be fun to build a modern interface ontop of it.

Inspired by similar projects from San Francisco and Portland I recently convinced my friend Andrew Filer to do exactly that, and he build Busdrone.

Busdrone mashes data from BusView, OneBusAway, NextBus, and WSDOT VesselWatch into a single realtime map of all the city's public transit options. It's a lot of fun to watch.

We also hope to eventually add private transit (car2go, Zipcar, Uber, Lyft, Sidecar) and any other location-based realtime data about the city such as 911 Fire responses and traffic collisions.

Last Saturday was the National Day of Civic Hacking, a nation-wide hackathon to build apps around public data. The Seattle event was hosted at our beautiful City Hall where I spent the day building a native Android Busdrone app while Andy continued to improve the API and web interface.

Both the Busdrone server and Android app are open source, so please grab the code and help build a platform for realtime information about cities across the world.

• Mushroom Tiny House: The part-grown portable home
• Passion House M1 prefab home built to handle Nordic climes
• Slip House provides template for future affordable and sustainable family homes
• 20K House project aims to make home ownership more affordable
• Studio H:T's off-grid Shipping Container House
• CHIP House powered by solar energy, controlled with Xbox Kinect

• Cuff fashion wearables send notifications to your loved ones
• Hands-on: Neptune Pine smartwatch
• Monitor blood pressure while scrolling and clicking with the MDMouse
• Neptune Pine watch makes calls, takes photos, browses the internet ...
• iHealth helps manage your blood pressure and weight on your iPhone
• Blood pressure and body fat monitoring wristwatch

• TaskOne turns the iPhone into a legitimate pocket knife
• Incog bike multi-tool stores in your handlebars
• IN1: The Swiss Army knife of iPhone cases
• Victorinox releases Swiss Army Bike Tool
• Survival Shovel: "Multi-tool on steroids" delivers a dozen functions
• Cycling multi-tool meets tire lever in the Nutter