Morphing and Transforming Devices from BYU

Cool new IronMan tech or just another "reinvention" of origami?




Source: https://news.byu.edu/news/byu-researchers-unfold-new-class-mechanical-devices

Make your own 3D printable handheld tractor beam emitter

Asier Marzo, a researcher at Bristol University, made this amazing project where you can make your own DIY handheld tractor beam. Currently it holds only small objects like liquid droplets or small insects.
It is Arduino controlled, cheap to make and uses ultrasonic sound emitters to produce the tractor field. You can make it for some 70 USD and with basic electronics skills. Ideal educational or school science project.


Here is a video of the device in action with some construction instructions:






It is like simplified home made sonic screwdriver from Doctor Who :-) Here you can see a small red liquid droplet floating in 3d printed sphere that holds ultrasonic transducers.

Step-by-step build guide with all the files and the code:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Acoustic-Tractor-Beam/

Detailed research paper with the science behind it and device design:

http://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.4972407


You can also find different type of the same device developed by the same author. It is a horizontal 3d printedplate array of ultrasonic emitters that make small objects levitate.

Kylo Ren Gets Into 3D Printing

SyFy publishes Expanse 3d models

I'm a huge SF fan and I REALLY enjoy SyFys "The Expanse" TV series. SyFy network went one step further and published many models of shows spaceships and insignia on Thingiverse making them 3d printable. Great! New projects!

Here is the MCRN Donnager spaceship model:

All models can be found at:

http://www.thingiverse.com/Syfy/designs


SyFy homepage:

http://www.syfy.com/theexpanse


The Expanse trailer:

The Kiosk by Bruce Sterling is dark vision of future and 3d printing

"The Kiosk" is an EXCELLENT must-read (or listen) science fiction novella by Bruce Sterling which deals with the dystopian future and 3d printing.
Bruce Sterling is a master SF writer famous for his work in fiction and technology theory and he currently lives in Serbia which is in my neighborhood and was once part of Yugoslavia.

The novella is clearly influenced by culture and history of Ex-Yugoslavia which makes it even more appealing to me.
It deals with life of kiosk owner Borislav from East Euroslavia who gets a "Fabrikator" machine. I will not spoil your enjoyment of the audiobook but it gets dark, violent, interesting ... there are 3d printed bullets printed with carbon particles and other 3d printed appliances ... the whole society of main protagonist is shaped by 3d printing...

You can download it here for free, it is read by Peter Cavell and starts around 10:30 into the podcast:

http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2010/01/13/aural-delights-no-116-bruce-sterling/

It is hour and a half well spent, I listened to it while walking my dog ...

FYI: it is not an optimistic work ...

For a similary themed dystopian short story you can also check out Printcrime by Cory Doctorow:

http://craphound.com/?p=573

"The Kiosk" inspired a project:

‘KIOSK’ explores a near future scenario in which digital fabrication is so ubiquitous that we see it appear on our
street corners. With KIOSK the user can ‘appropriate, sample, remix, improve, up/downscale or copy new objects
and 3D-print them on the spot.’ KIOSK operates as a portable 3D copyshop capable of producing a ‘custom made
fix for your broken shoe, materialise an illegal download of Starck’s Juicy Salif orange squeezer that you modified for better performance or quickly print out a present for your sister’s birthday.’ For The Machine Unfold, in collaboration with Indianen, created a new creative digital copy station.

A project commissioned by Z33, House for contemporary art and MU Eindhoven.
With the support of Bits from Bytes and Jo Van Bostraeten.
A collaboration with Indianen.

DIY ultrasonic distance sensor and tape measure by Adafruit

And it comes in 3d printed enclosure resembling fictional weapons from Dune universe.

If you don't know what Dune is or are unfamiliar with Weirding Modules, you should really do some reading and movie watching. The design is based on Beast Rabans pistol. Those DAMN Harkonnens ... I can only wish that Adafruit makes something Atreides or Fremen based ... just to bring more balance ...

As all Adafruit projects it comes with detailed instructions and documentation.

If you want to build one or learn more about ultrasonic distance measuring go to:

https://learn.adafruit.com/ultrasonic-ruler

... spice must flow ...

3d printed steampunk Alien Xenomorph costume

James Bruton continues his work on 3d printed steampunk Alien costume. He is showing hand construction in this video.  He is continuing to use combination of rigid filament and Ninjaflex as shown here in detail:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/05/flexydualie-open-source-dual-extruder.html

Project homepage:

http://xrobots.co.uk/alien2/

You go James! I'm a huge Alien fan and I'm sure the final suit will be amazing.

Update (15.7.2014.):

The Xenomorph costume hand is advancing:

Here is Jimmy, 3d printed open source robot by Intel

http://www.robots21.com/