After the success of Avatar at the box office, James Cameron revealed he wanted not one but two sequels to the film. This has now changed as Cameron now wants five Avatar films in total, all before 2024.
Avatar is often seen as the first film to truly introduce viewers to the benefits of a 3D film, with many leaving cinemas awe smacked by the content and depth they felt when viewing the natives fighting up close. The change came about “after meeting with a team of four screenwriters and a group of some of the top artists and designers in the world”, the ultimate result was that Cameron noticed he had more content than he wanted to fit into just two films, resulting in the dream of three, and then four sequels.
Cameron seems to have high hopes for the Avatar Films, saying that while only a few had seen initial concepts for the next film, those that had were left “speechless”. The next film is set for release in 2018, with the sequels set for 2020, 2022 and 2023, implying that there may be some overlap in the filming schedules to help create a smooth release model for such a large budget film series.
Did you like Avatar? When it comes to sequels are you a happy person or do you prefer to be a little more cautious about expecting great things after the first film in a series?
When we say 40K in this instance we aren’t talking about the Warhammer universe, instead, I am talking about the 40k resolution that the Lytro Cinema will give you.
Lytro uses a “light field solution” to detect and calculate a cubic ton of information regarding the light in a photo, this gives you not just the original imagine but the depth of any given point, essentially a 3D copy. While this technology may give you something to use for VR technology, the companies recent introduction of Lytro Cinema looks to be the closest to everyday use that we will see for a while.
Lytro Cinema records at 40K resolution with a staggering 300 FPS, leading to around 400 gigabytes of information per second. With the ability to change settings after filming because of how the data is recorded, the new recording technique may get rid of an old cinema favorite, the green screen.
With the ability to detect and focus on a particular part of a scene, the reliance of putting people within a green screen (something you would then remove to overlay special effects). With the rental package for a camera starting at £125k, it’s not for your everyday filmmaker.
With many only just catching up to 4K TV’s, I doubt that 40K 3D content will be coming to your home anytime soon but when it comes to making movies the added quality can only be a good thing.
Nintendo’s attitude towards their dedicated fan-base paying homage to the company’s previous works is nothing short of appalling. They’ve consistently launched copyright claims against YouTuber hobbyists simply trying to showcase what made their favourite games so special. Instead of admiring this level of passion, the company feels the need to flag anything which uses their intellectual property. In some cases, this makes sense if the game is episodic and people can watch a playthrough instead of purchasing it through legitimate channels. However, Nintendo is applying this kind of behaviour to NES, SNES and other classics to push their own overpriced Virtual Console store.
Only three days ago, a new project came to fruition designed to honour the 30th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. This allowed players to enjoy the game through a web browser and looked absolutely stunning. Sadly, Nintendo didn’t approve and believed this infringed on their intellectual property. It’s clear that the creation breaches copyright, but it’s just a small team trying to share the magic of the Zelda series. The project creators, Scott Lininger and Mike Magee announced the news on zelda30tribute.com which reads:
“Nintendo asked us to remove this site for copyright infringement. I guess Zelda30Tribute was a little too pixel perfect. We’re sad about that, but we get it. We started this project because we love Nintendo and the joy they have given us throughout the years. From the start of development, we knew this result could potentially happen. Nintendo has every right to protect their IP. No complaints from us, we had a blast working on this tribute and made some friends along the way.”
Of course, Nintendo are well within their rights to protect intellectual property. On the other hand, it comes across very poorly given the game’s age. Furthermore, it’s a terrible way to treat loyal fans showcasing their creative abilities. Nintendo desperately needs to adapt to the modern world and encourage community content as a way of indirect marketing.
With more and more people being interested in driver-less technology it was only a matter of time before it went from the streets to the race track. Formula E have already announced their intention to start a driverless championship, but you can even get a glimpse at the designs behind the first driverless racecar.
Roborace, the world’s first driverless series, released renderings of what their first designs for what autonomous racing cars could look like, and they do not disappoint. Designed by Chief Design Officer Daniel Simon, known for his work on Oblivion and Tron: Legacy, the designs look perfect for a vehicle that no longer has to worry about their driver, offering people the chance to enjoy great looking vehicles doing insane speeds around a track.
While we still have to wait till 2017 before we get to enjoy the series featuring all-electric cars, just seeing the first design reminds us of its potential.
With a trailer to go alongside the design rendering, when will we get to see the next design? With the ability for anyone in the automated vehicle business to take part in the championship, we could soon see designs from big names in both technology and cars manufacturing as they get ready to view and race their cars doing high-speed around tracks.
Back before the likes of the Playstation and the Xbox, there was the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES for short. With classic games like Megaman and Super Mario Bros. bringing hours of enjoyment for anyone who played them. The classics can come back with the help of an emulator that lets you play your favourite NES games in 3D.
When it comes to playing old games these days, there is a tear down the middle. Some believe that the old games don’t have enough to keep up with the latest releases, stating that everything from the graphics to the gameplay missing everything that makes them fun. Others believe that a classic is a classic no matter what you do, it would seem that Geod Studios are a company who want to be somewhere in between.
Geod Studios have released a new emulator, titled 3DNES, which not only lets you play the classic Nintendo games but with the added bonus of 3D effects.
The emulator in question can be played from your web browser (provided that you are using Firefox) and means that childhood favourites like Megaman, Dr. Mario and even Castlevania are enjoyable in a whole new light.
Having grown up with these games, you can’t help but appreciate them and the fun they helped create, back then and even now. Giving them the 3D treatment is a nice twist, and is made all the better by the fact it’s been done right. Here’s hoping that Nintendo will take note and support this project!
Even when 3D first launched, its hold on consumers was tenuous. After all these years of struggling to put out 3D TVs and content haven’t really taken hold in most homes. A little over six years since 3D TV and content went mainstream, Samsung and Philips have given up. Both companies have dropped their focus on 3D and for 2016, will not be releasing any new 3D capable TV sets.
For Samsung, the choice was plain as “limited consumer demand for 3D, and the small amount of content being produced in this format” meant there was little point to dumping money on development. Philips went as far as to say that 3D is dead since there is no 3D content and no one really wants 3D. LG and Sony have both reduced the number of 3D capable units in their lineups and only Panasonic has any real 3D TV presence to speak of.
Personally, I see little need for 3D content other than for a few niche segments. Until passive 3D takes off and becomes relatively cheap, it’s hard to see 3D’s fortunes turning around. This is even more true for the PC space as the focus shifts to VR and its various forms like augmented VR. Unlike my thoughts when 3D first appeared, I expect VR to be much more successful despite it’s higher entry cost as it actually adds more value. It will be interesting to see if 3D will continue to limp along or will something change its fortunes in the near future.
3D Printers have helped medicine come a long way, with the ability to customise and create things in an easy and cost-effective way that previously would have been impossible to do. 3D-printed ribs, to livers, eyes and even ears. While these are all amazing feats, they have always been generic items, things which are custom but not unique in their design. At the end of 2015, this changed though when a patient was implanted with two 3D printed vertebrae.
Vertebrae are the discs that cling to your spine and are responsible for giving you a lot of your movement. The patient in question suffered from a form of cancer that had formed on the top two of his vertebrae, potentially threatening his spinal cord as it developed. The top two vertebrae are the ones responsible for your heads movement, meaning that grafting one from another piece of bone or material would be particularly difficult given their custom nature.
The solution was to work with an Australian medical device manufacturer, Anatomics, who using a 3D printer created the top two vertebrae using a 3D printer and some titanium. Ralph Mobbs, the neurosurgeon who performed the surgery stated that it was “a pure delight” to perform the surgery knowing that you had already done it on a model.
The surgery itself took 15 hours to perform and given the location was not without risk. Described as “essentially disattaching the patient’s head from his neck and taking the tumour out and reattaching his head back into his neck”. The surgery was a success though and Mobbs was able to not only remove the tumor but also implant the prosthetic into the patient.
Is there anything people can’t do when they work together with technology and each other?
Living in space faces many challenges, such as the availability of critical spare parts. Supply trips to the ISS are somewhat uncommon, so getting a replacement part for a broken piece of equipment is both slow and expensive. NASA’s newest revelation from its research park in Silicon Valley helps to tackle just such a problem, a 3D printer that works in space. Not just a proof of concept either, with it planning to be launched to the ISS on the 23rd of March, where it will be used to build both spare parts and parts for experiments.
This isn’t the first 3D printer to be used in space, a prototype printer had already been trialled by the crew of the ISS previously. This new printer will be more than the previous prototype and, in fact, be a fully operational model for use by ISS crew members.
Andrew Rush, the chief executive of Made In Space, the NASA-funded startup developing the technology stated: “You can bring us a USB stick with your file, and we can digitally send it to space.” “Via 3D printing we can make that object and completely avoid putting it on a rocket.”
This is just the start of space manufacturing too, with Made In Space being given $20 million to work on a project named Archinaut. The system would allow the construction of huge structures in space, manufactured and assembled automatically by robots. Rush believes that Archinaut could construct “giant radio dishes that could service many people, or do amazing science and peer deep into the universe’s past.” The success of this project could revolutionize space construction and say goodbye to the current method of sending “flat packed” structures to space on rockets where they are then unfolded and constructed, allowing structures too fragile to survive the launch to space or other logistically problematic structures.
For now, the ambitions remain small-scale with the 3D printer, however, far more exciting things are in the near future. Made In Space estimate it will be 3 to 4 years before the truly big projects take root, and the technology is planned to be licensed out to commercial enterprises, of which Tesla may for one be very interested. Making the 3D printing no longer reliant on the Earth’s resources is another step on the road to the self-sufficiency of space. The raw materials that can be found in space, from asteroids to the surfaces of moons and planets are being explored as resources to be used for 3D printing, with the end goal of not just removing reliance on Earth, but even allowing for the construction of things that are impossible with only materials from the Earth’s environment.
Augmented reality is one step beyond virtual reality, with popular VR hardware like the Oculus Rift or even Google Cardboard looking to put you into the action, there is something missing from that Iron-Man experience. This is where Meta wants to surpass everyone else by not only letting you see images in 3D but also by letting you manipulate them.
We’ve seen augmented reality in a million movies and TV shows, the ability to create a 3D image and then using your physical body manipulate the digital image, from dancing with your favourite stars on a holodeck to crafting a vase on your table ready for printing.
We’ve commented on the Meta Spaceglasses before but they’ve come a long way since then. At a demo in Vancouver, Canada, Meron Gribetz, the founder and CEO of Meta, demoed just a few of the features that could soon see it become a must buy. On stage he was able to pick apart an object and manipulate it, work with a colleague somewhere else in the world by telepresence and then creating virtual computer monitors.
Being able to create something with your own hands is always rewarding, and can be easier than attempting to draw the object using a pen of some kind for your computer to interpret. The ability to create virtual screens will be a live saver for anyone who works on the go and needs access to private screens to get the most out of their work.
I personally can’t wait to see what Meta have accomplished with the Meta 2, but I guess we will only find out when the countdown reaches zero.
3D printing is not a new area for doctors and surgeons to use, they’ve managed to 3D print new ribs and a sternum for a cancer patient and that was only the start. 3D printing has come a long way, being able to print everything from a bike to a supercar, a PC case or even a houses. The problem is that they are all solid things, inanimate objects and items that we use on occasion, the problem with organs is that we use them everyday and need to keep alive. Previous attempts to grow human organs have had trouble with the latter stage, with it proving difficult to give an organ what it needs to grow, this has now come one step closer to being solved thanks to 3D printing.
Published in Nature Biotechnology, the recent advancement means that not only can organs be “printed” but they are kept alive and retain their strength long after creation. They do this by creating a lattice of layers, with holes going throughout the organ, this means that when it is still developing it can absorb the nutrients and chemicals needed, filling out and retaining its strength as it absorbs its needed Oxygen.
This solution is a step forward, being described as the “geese that lays the golden egg”, and certainly seems more in line with common ideas than using a candy floss machine to create blood vessels.
Air travel has become the norm within today’s fast past society, from the extremely affordable ticket prices coupled with the package holiday’s that have become part of many people’s yearly quest for adventure. But, what is next for air travel? Can it be developed to the point whereby consumers are able to fly to for example Australia from the UK in less than 22 hrs?
Well, a potentially sizeable development is on the horizon after Orbital in conjunction with NASA has developed and preliminarily tested what is known as a “3D printed hypersonic engine combustor at NASA’s Langley Research Centre in Virginia”. This could potentially facilitate air travel at amazing speeds of up to 3,425 mph (5,500km/h) or 4.5 times the speed of sound, which is fast.
Below is an image of a concept hypersonic plane which has been modelled within design software that is used for the purposes of aerodynamics, it certainly looks fascinating for a ground level design. The combustor was created through a manufacturing process known as “powder bed fusion” (PBF). Within this is a layer of “metal alloy powder that is printed before a laser fuses areas together based on the pattern which is fed into the machine by a software program”
The combustor has as you would expect been put through a series of hypersonic flight conditions over the course of 20 days. Orbital have also stated that one of the most complex parts with which to develop is the Scramjet combustion system which needs to maintain stable combustion within an extremely volatile environment. This technique could also have the potential to be used within future versions of NASA’s X-43 experimental hypersonic aircraft which is pictured below alongside the Langley Research Centre in Virginia.
In case you’re wondering, the definition of a Scramjet is an air-breathing aircraft that carries only “hydrogen fuel, the aircraft pulls the oxygen needed and burns it from the atmosphere; this is instead of the traditional method of fuel and the required oxygen to provide acceleration”
These developments could pave the way for a future whereby consumers could, in theory, be whizzing around the globe by hypersonic power.
It is mostly the Oculus Rift and the Sony’s Playstation VR that take the headlines these days, but that doesn’t mean that simpler tools such as the Google Cardboard can’t be useful. In this case it was extremely useful as it helped to plan an operation virtually first and quite possibly have saved a baby’s life at the same time.
Teegan Lexcen was born with a unique defect that the doctors hadn’t seen before. Most of the left half of her heart was missing and on top of that she only has one lung. The parents were originally told by their doctors that nothing could be done. The poor girl was sent to a hospice to have the best care in the little time she had left. But two weeks later, Teegan was still alive. At this point her parents started to look for alternatives and found Redmond Burke, chief of cardiovascular surgery at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. Burke’s idea, along with a team of heart surgeons, was to 3D print a model of Teegan’s heart and go from there. But to make bad news worse, the 3D printer was broken and due to Teegan’s dangerous condition, something had to be done fast.
The doctors then turned to virtual reality in order to get a 3D image of the child’s chest region and organs. Doctors downloaded 3D images of the heart to an iPhone using the app Sketchfab. The images were similar to the 3D models that the doctors had on their computers, but the Google Cardboard used made it easier to accurately view every angle of the heart’s structure.
There were two major difficulties with this surgery, besides the extra risk that there always is with patients this young. First, the heart was placed further to the left of the chest than normal. That would normally require a very big incision which is a “massive trauma to a baby, it’s just horrendous,” Burke told CNN. Thanks to the Google Cardboard, Burke was able to visualize the precise location and use a much smaller and simpler midline incision.
The second challenge was a missing ventricle. Normally we have two, one that supplies the blood to the lungs while the other takes care of the rest. This was a tricky one in all conditions, but again the Google Cardboard helped Burke come up with a completely new procedure and solution for the problem. He rerouted Teegan’s right ventricle so it could continue to pump blood to both her lungs and body. He did this after having spent hours examining the 3D image of Teegan’s heart in Google Cardboard before pulling off the procedure with no complications.
This is a perfect example of why I love technology. When it is used for good and to help. In this case it was something as simple and cheap as a Google Cardboard (together with a lesser cheap iPhone) that helped do what an expensive 3D printer failed at. I wish little Teegan and her entire family all the best, may they all have a blessed life together.
The 3D printer is considered by some futurologists, such as Jeremy Rifkin, the beginning of the third industrial revolution. 3D printing has come a long way over the last few years, and it can now be used to replicate almost any kind of object, including blood vessels. Replicating blood vessels in this way doesn’t sound very natural or risk-free, but a team of scientists has recently reported great progress in this particular field. Blood vessels have been 3D printed by Lawrence Livermore researchers, and the most impressive part is that they are not all that different from the real ones found within our bodies.
Since these vessels can deliver nutrients and assemble on their own when they are inside a living body, they can be considered “live” vessels, but there is still a lot of work to be done in order to successfully replicate mother nature’s original design. In order to create a totally functioning blood vessel, some essential steps must be taken into consideration. First, scientists need to print an initial structure from cells and organic materials, and then they need to supplement the result with bio-ink and other special materials that would be tolerated by the body. As you can probably imagine, this is a long and difficult process that requires a lot of research in order to be completed successfully. Moreover, even though the cells themselves can be created, they still need to be organized properly into structures. If the organizing step also goes well, we’ll witness some very impressive advancements in the fields of medicine and biology.
The Steam digital distribution client was originally setup to provide a huge scope of indie and mainstream PC games to a huge audience. As time progressed, Valve decided to implement music functionality, attempted to introduce paid mods, and even released the odd film about video gaming. Their latest move revolves around a new Software Tutorials section which contains instructional videos to produce creative content. This can range from 3D models to other areas but the selection is quite small at this time.
Each tutorial offers a number of videos and utilizes a fairly wide price range. The most expensive video series I’ve seen retails for £11.99. Unfortunately, the content is locked to Steam and you can only stream the videos. This can be problematic if your internet goes down or you want to rip the audio to listen to on the go. On another note, there are options to purchase the software package with video tutorials, but this is quite an expensive proposition.
The other aspect to take into considering is the huge amount of free tutorials available on YouTube. I’m not entirely convinced by the number of people who are willing to pay for videos up front. On YouTube, payment is usually made through a Patreon account if the video ends up being helpful. Although, the amount of people sending donations is very niche.
There were some games back in the 90s that stood out from the rest and we often talk about DOOM, Wolfenstein, Age of Empires, and all of Sid Meier’s creations as some of the cornerstones that created our current gaming worlds, but one game shouldn’t be forgotten and that is Descent. Descent took a new approach and moved 3D shooters into a new situation by adding two more directions that you could move in and gave us full 360-degree rotation in all directions.
That was back in 1995 and I personally spent many hours of my life back then playing just this game, so it’s a real joy to see a new Descent being launched on Steam’s Early Access program, Descent Underground. The game launched on the platform yesterday, 20 years after the original game, and to celebrate this there is 17% discount on the title until the 29th of October. Currently, the early access game can be had for €23.23 instead of the normal €27.99 price.
A true first person shooter deserves all six degrees of freedom. Fight through twisting tunnels & vast caverns where the concepts of up and down mean nothing and danger lurks around every corner. This is Descent: Underground!
We’re blasting the full-freedom shooter Descent into the 21st Century with next-generation gaming technology built on Unreal Engine 4!
Descent Underground is both a modernization of the original gameplay as well as a prequel to the already existing series. The original game mechanics are preserved and early testers confirm that it feels like the original game to play. That’s something that means everything when a classic is revived into the modern times. Arcade style combat and a tightly twisting map design should make for both an entertaining and challenging gameplay.
The new Descent Underground was also showcased in combination with an Oculus Rift, which should take a game like this to the next level and help a lot when you have to navigate and fight in all directions. Multiplayer and Single player storyline are both in the vision for this game, but remember that it’s still early access.
I don’t know, children today in developed countries have it all in terms of tech, where tablet computers and Smartphone’s are the norm and internet access is available 24/7 to assist with homework, yep, let’s assume it’s for school work and not for social networks. Now, Disney has incorporated augmented reality into a colouring book which allows your child the ability to colour in a character from an art book in 3D.
Below is a video which shows the concept, as you can see, it utilizes an augmented reality app that Disney have developed with the aim of tracking and capturing real-time images from a mobile device camera. It then maps them onto any 3D deformable surface. The end result is a moving 3D character which can be coloured in within real-time.
The app is still very much at the development stage, but it certainly shows the possibilities which could exist within toys of the future. Below is a screenshot to convey the idea, the user views the 3D character via a phone or tablet camera while using the app, they can then colour in the figure within the 2D colouring book which is then translated onto the character.
This concept is certainly fantastic and shows what could be achieved if you transfer this principle onto a more advanced model. Imagine if this technique was perfected and allowed you to colour in a Star Wars vehicle before it flew around the room or a historical building or landmark. It will be a while yet before it hits the shops, but when it does, expect children to clamber for it.
A fantastic concept for tech lovers, and imagine working for a company called “Disney Research” certainly eye-catching on a CV.
Thank youdisneyresearch for providing us with this information.
Technology has provided a platform for many fan made creations which have risen to prominence over the years, from intricately detailed worlds in Minecraft to imaginative landscapes which have garnered a huge following. Star Trek is one such Sci Fi phenomenon which has certainly given rise to its fair share of individually constructed projects, well, a talented individual has taken his obsession for the famous Enterprise to a whole new creative level.
The project in question is by the name of “The Enterprise Construction Project” and is the brain child of an extremely creative 3D artist by the name of “Jason”. His target goal is to construct all 42 decks of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D in the Unreal Game Engine 4” Below is the video which, as you can see is both lovingly and exquisitely rendered, so much so that the artist states the following,
“Creating all of them will be a daunting task. I have compiled a large archive of reference from production drawings, set blueprints, official blueprints, and of course meticulous screen captures of the HD Blu-ray versions of the episodes.”
It’s astonishing to imagine the lengths which have been planned to obtain such an extensive reference list of materials with the aim of replicating the finer details.
https://youtu.be/uK9ijZeHWjI
Below is two screenshots of the level of detail which have been conveyed within this model, the luminosity of the planet/star and the fluid movement of the Asteroids capture the imagination of the viewer.
It is certainly impressive considering one person has achieved this level of detail, the textures and visual representations are immersive and according to the website, Jason’s main objective is to ” create the entirety of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D in the Unreal Game Engine. The Enterprise would serve first and foremost as a virtual museum. Every deck and room can be explored” Other potential phases include a “populated ship containing Federation citizens and Starfleet” and also “Different Planetary Systems.”
It’s a fascinating and fabulous project which has the potential for wider exposure within many outlets while keeping fans entertained.
In a not too distant future your average person will be able to print their own door keys thanks to the technique of 3D printing. Which is great news for those who have lost there’s, not so good if some bright spark has created and uploaded the plans so that you can print your very own TSA Master Keys.
These keys were designed by the Transportation Security Administration following the 9/11 attacks to ensure the safety of travellers into and around the US by requiring any lock on bags to be branded as “travel sentry approved”. This is to enable airport security staff to carry out searches without having to break the lock or bag. These keys are meant to be kept secret; this was up until an article by The Washington Post which was uploaded in 2014 and conveyed a photograph of seven master keys. The respected news source finally took the pictures down in August 2015, but not before a security researcher by the username “Xyl2k” managed to both create and post 3D printing files of all seven master keys to code site Github.
Do they work? Yep, others have test printed them and it turns out you really can open other people’s luggage, sorry, I meant your own. below is a video which has been uploaded to Twitter concerning this. This might be going off topic, but the source for this story is The Guardian, who decided to place an image to illustrate the story, what did they go for? see for yourself, the link is at the end of the article, let’s just say it looks to be potentially painful to a poor flyer.
“Xyl2k” has stated that the reason the plans were uploaded was to warn against the security flaws in “master keys” and the potential for them to be exploited as in this case. The laughable aspect concerns The Washington Post and their willingness to exist in a parallel universe, a month before the photos were published, the news source rallied for a so-called “Golden Key” which could be used by tech companies, this theoretical key would be then only used with a court order. The big glaring elephant in the room lies with the very fact that it could be copied and then misused by a wide variety of individuals, organisations and groups.
I do wish people would stop simplifying tech to the point of stupidity, for example, the general consensus from powerful officials is that encryption is bad, so why not simplify it and remove it. There is a philosophy term for this and it is called Occam’s Razor, the principle states that among competing hypotheses that predict equally well, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. Therefore, The Washington Post has simplified the many outcomes by suggesting a “Golden Key” to be stored by various tech companies. The only problem with that is the many hackers which include state sponsored virtual safe crackers are smarter than your average David Cameron.
This article has been written on September 11th 2015 but would be published on the 12th, this may seem a bit late when reading this, but I would just like to take a minute to pay respects to the near 3000 people who tragically lost their lives on that day 14 years ago to the most brutal of acts.
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” –Nelson Mandela
3D Printing has taken off in recent years, with everything from toys to houses being designed and built by anyone with a computer (and a big enough printer). Some of the biggest advantages of the 3D printer are quite simply those provided to medical sciences, with advances allowing people to print items that could help people in ways unthought of several years ago, such as a 3D printed skull for a 3-year-old girl in china. The latest though is another step, with a set of ribs and sternum being printed for a 54-year-old man.
Medical company Anatomics and CSIRO’s 3D printing facility developed the technology required to 3D print the titanium sternum and ribcage implant that was used. In this instance, the gentlemen had several bones removed that had been affected by a cancerous tumour, called chest wall sarcoma.
Crediting the surgery as a success, Surgeon José Aranda stated that “to his knowledge this is the first 3D titanium printed sternum (made through) custom-made processes”. What this means is that in place of a regular sheet of titanium the implant was actually constructed and designed before being built, making it an easier fit and more accurate to the original autonomy of the gentlemen involved.
Thank you Tech Spot for the information and the image.
Amazon attempted to enter a marketplace which is saturated by established Smartphone makers which include juggernauts Apple and Samsung. The Fire phone was launched onto the market with its fair share of pomp and circumstance around 15 months ago, its hope was to piggyback onto the name of Amazon with the aim of enticing consumers with an alternative. Turns out this idea has ended in flames as Amazon has announced that it “has no plans” to replenish a product which is currently “Out Of Stock”
This follows a recent report which stated that there have been lay-offs at the US companies Silicon Valley research-and-development lab after the phone failed to resonate with consumers. So where did it all go wrong? Part of the reason was a lack of features which really failed to capture the imagination of consumers. The primary selling point of the Fire phone was the “Dynamic Perspective” camera which was able to track the movements of the user with the aim of offering an illusion of 3D. The problem lies with the trend of consumers which have been disinterested with this type of tech. This has been seen for example with broadcaster Sky and their failed 3D channel experiment and also lacklustre sales of television sets which offer the 3D experience.
In October 2014, the company revealed it had suffered a $170m (£110.5m) write-down which was attributed to below expectation sales for the gadget. Unless you wow consumers with an amazing product which offers a completely new experience to consumers, this product was always destined to self destruct. As a spectator it will be interesting to note the direction which Amazon decides to go after such a failure, I do envisage Amazon will think twice before attempting to challenge a market which has seen substantial growth from innovative companies which offers tech that is cutting edge.
Thank youbbc for providing us with this information.
Recent years have seen the technique of 3D printing evolve from a niche concept to a mainstream phenomenon, which in turn has opened up a whole new horizon for product manufacturing. If you thought this was exciting, then be prepared to be blown away as a new development centres on glass 3D printing.
MIT’s Mediated Matter Group has unveiled a first of its kind optically transparent glass printing process which goes by the name of G3DP, If you are wondering, it stands for “Glass 3D Printing”. In order for this process to become a reality, an additive manufacturing platform is applied with dual heated chambers. The first or upper chamber is a “Kiln Cartridge,” which operates at an intense heat of 1900°F, while the lower chamber works with the aim of heating before cooling in order to soften the glass.
This technique is not creating glass but rather building layers upon layers with pre-existing materials. Below is a video to convey this process in action, as you can see, it is compelling, mind-blowing and quite relaxing to watch, the building up of an object looks similar to a lava lamp which used to be popular.
The consistency looks to be incredibly hot syrup which is drizzled onto a sugary treat, yep I know, perhaps a poor observation but I have included a screenshot below which kind of backs it up, sort of.
It’s intricate and opens up a whole new set of possibilities for everyday applications in the near future, for now, if your feeling stressed and would like a few moments to relax, then by all means watch the video, aside from the fact that it is pretty amazing to view, it might also soothe you.
Thank You to Gizmodo for providing us with this information.
We’ve been talking about holograms like something out of sci-fi movies, but with today’s technology, it really is possible to make a holographic display. We’ve previously seen this as a DIY project, where a guy showed you how to build your own pyramid-shaped display and use it with your smarphone. Now a Japanese company named ‘SSS’ seems to take it even further and started a crowdfunding project on Indiegogo for a 3D holographic display, dubbed ‘Holo case’.
As with the DYI project, the display is shaped as a pyramid for a full 360 degree holographic effect. The company already has a lot of useful real-world applications for it, from meeting your favourite characters in the ‘real-world’, to displaying expensive jewelery and minimize the risk of it being stolen from the showcase.
“Our mission is realize that thinking about how to interact with the characters. VR is the way we go through the world of character. However, there isn’t the only one answer for it. One of these is studying how to ” invite character into this world ” and we’ve realized it.”
“Here’s the example of exhibiting “authentic” ring in “Holo case”. Although the ring itself is just $10, you can display it just like expensive one by giving effect to the ring. Here’s the mini figure set in Holo case. We can display snowing scene.”
The company says that making an app for the Holo case is easy too. It just takes some animations to display on all sides of the pyramid, and you’re all set! They even say that using a game engine such as Unity3D or Unreal Engine 4 will make life even easier for you. You can find more information about the project over on Indiegogo.
The major players in the virtual reality headset market have based their gear on stereoscopic technology – splitting images into two, one for each eye, to simulate 3D visuals – but a new joint initiative by Stanford University and GPU maker NVIDIA, under the banner Magic Leap, is hoping to push beyond stereoscopic alignments with its new “light field” VR display.
The headset offers users a more realistic experience by simulating depth-of-field, allowing the eye to switch focus between foreground and background, rather than tricking it in-image. It achieves this by layering two screens on top of one another, both being translucent with a backlight behind them, allowing the rear screen to be visible through the front screen.
“The way we perceive the natural world is much more complex than stereoscopic,” said Gordon Wetzstein, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford. ”Our eyes can focus at different distances. Even one eye can see in 3D. It does that by focusing the eye.”
The image shown to each eye, constructed of a combination of 25 separate images through its LCD screens, is akin to a hologram. The prototype kit, currently connected to a high-end PC, is powered by an NVIDIA Maxwell GPU, while the program it runs is constructed using NVIDIA’s CUDA programming language. In development since 2010, the current headset marks the third generation of the light field technology. “This is as good as we can make it from off-the-shelf components purchased on eBay and 3D-printed housing,” Wetzstein said.
Thank you Forbes for providing us with this information.
An industrious tech reviewer has developed a very cool method for turning your smartphone into a 3D hologram projector. Mrwhosetheboss posted his process to YouTube, which effectively creates a homemade version of portable hologram generator Holho. Want to give it a try? Let’s talk you through it.
You will need:
Graph paper
CD case
Tape or Super Glue
Pen
Scissors
Smartphone
Knife or Glass Cutter
Start off by drawing this pattern on the graph paper:
Break the edges off the CD case:
Then trace the outline of the shape you drew on the graph paper onto the CD case:
Cut the shape out with your knife:
Repeat three more times, until you have four trapeziums.
Stick the shapes together with tape to form a pyramid, without the peak:
Though Mrwhosetheboss lists tape or Super Glue, he stresses that the gluing the pieces together is very difficult.
Load up a hologram-specific video on your phone, and place your newly constructed pyramid in the centre of the image:
There are numerous custom videos to achieve this task to be found on YouTube, such as the one used above, created by Cospe S.a.s., creator of the Holho.
Thank you Mashable for providing us with this information.
Milk. Some love it, some dislike it. We are told from a young age that calcium makes our bones strong and we are often told to have more. The experience can be a little daunting though for those unfortunate souls who have poured themselves a glass or over their favourite cereals only to have a foul taste and smell emanate from the white liquid they poured out (if it’s still a liquid).
This may be preventable through with the creation of the “smart lid”, a device that is hidden in plain sight. In fact, in the lid you place atop your milk. The device was created by researchers at the University of California and the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan and aims to help people detect the quality of their milk before they open the bottle.
The lid detects changes within the milk which demonstrate that it’s going off, such as the presence of bacteria and can transmit these details wirelessly to devices such as smartphones and tablets. The resonant chips built inside the 3D printed caps means the caps don’t require a giant battery built in and can allow for low price monitoring and tracking of milk and possibly other foods.
Imagine going to the store and checking with your phone if the milk you just placed in the basket is good or if that sell by date was a really bad estimate for when it would go off.
Thank you Entrepreneur for providing us with this information.
Not that long ago we just had Full HD 1080p monitors, the standard set when flat screens started to emerge and press the CRT monitors away. Then we got the 1440p monitors, then 4K, and we’ve even seen some 5K monitors already. But that’s all peanuts compared to what Samsung is working on; an 11K super resolution panel.
That’s a lot of pixels, but it isn’t the only impressive thing in Samsung’s announcement. It will also have an absolutely insane 2250PPI. When comparing that to a 27-inch 5K monitor we really see how insane as that only features 218ppi.
The high PPI count will reportedly implement a 3D effect which could mean a huge boon for VR screens, large-scale TVs and even cinema screens large billboards.
Samsung is collaborating on this with other industries and the South Korean government is investing $26.5 million spread out over a 5-year period.
Executive Director Chu Hye Yong of Samsung Display’s Base Technology Department said: “We are hoping that we are able to show such technologies at Pyeongchang Olympics if there is a progress in developing technologies. Although some might think that 11K as ‘over specification’ that consumers do not need, this can work as a basis for Korean display industry take another leap if related materials and parts improve through this.”
Thank You TweakTown for providing us with this information
Like the average computer desk, space is laced with debris. For every crumb lodged in your keyboard, one thousand times as many particles are currently in orbit around the Earth. With the wonderful 3D-visualised map stuffin.space, you can now watch the myriad or objects hurtling around our planet in real time.
The site uses live satellite data from Space Track, the US Department of Defense’s website designed to promote space flight safety and “protection of the space environment”. The site monitors space junk traffic in orbit around the planet, tracking all objects bigger than a tennis ball, excluding secret military satellites, sadly.
Though this data, stuffin.space tracks around 150,000 unique objects currently in orbit around the Earth and can show their position, movement, and trajectory in real time. Every object has its own identifier, so if you know the name of the object you’d wish to follow, simply type its name into the search box and the screen will zero in on it.
The beautiful visualisation suite was developed by 18-year-old James Yoder, a programmer and alumnus of FIRST Robotics, the lauded high school robotics competition. Yoder was driven by a desire to learn how to render 3D graphics and code using the JavaScript API, WebGL.
“Using those orbital parameters, stuffin.space uses a propagation model to predict the location of every satellite in real time, with an accuracy of within a few kilometers, and displays the data using a WebGL visualization with an accurate view of the Earth’s rotation and sunlight angle,” Yoder told Gizmodo.
Yoder will be studying electrical engineering at the University of Texas this Autumn.
Thank you Gizmodo for providing us with this information.
