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Tech NewsYou Can Now Buy An Alien-Looking 3D-Printed Violin
A 3D-printed replica is nothing more than a plastic trinket if it doesn’t function as well as the original. But as revealed last year, a company called 3Dvarius has created the world’s first 3D-printed playable electric violin that sounds just as good as its wooden equivalent—and now you can finally buy one. Its creator, Laurent … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsNew 3D Printer Draws in Midair Like Magic
Lasers and metal were part of 3D printing for decades before the machines became affordable for personal use. But researchers at Harvard are demonstrating a new technique by which 3D metal structures can be printed in midair, without the need for anything supporting them. If you’re not familiar with the process, 3D printers slowly build … Continued
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Tech NewsGreat Deal Alert: For $30,000 You Can 3D-Print a Life-Size Clone of Yourself For Mother’s Day
Can’t make it back to Smalltown, USA, for Mother’s Day this weekend? That’s OK. Your mom will happily pretend that a phone call and a flower delivery is enough. But imagine her excitement if instead of flowers, someone delivered a life-size 3D-printed replica of you to her door? That’s exactly what Groupon is offering with … Continued
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Tech News
These Crazy Robots Are 3D Printers That Build Together
3D printers are getting way faster and more intricate. Now, Siemens has created a swarm of spider-like robots that can collaborate with each other to build large and intricate structures. The bots, which are called SiSpis, are equipped with the kinds of extrusion devices seen in many 3D printers. But they also have onboard cameras … Continued
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Tech News
Anyone Can Be a 3D Printing Artist With the Help of a Robot Arm
Handheld 3D printing pens seem like a cheaper alternative to those giant autonomous boxes, but they require more patience than most of us can muster, and a decent level of artistic capability. This robot arm can help with the latter, by controlling where the pen can move to ensure better results. Like with a dedicated … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsIf You Have a 3D Printer You Can Make Yourself a Cheap Robotic Lawn Mower
A decent robot mower will set you back a couple thousand dollars, considerably more than the robot vacuum that’s patrolling your living room for dust. But if you’ve got access to a 3D printer and a bit of electronics know-how, you can print and build a robotic mower for a fraction of the cost. You’ll … Continued
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Tech NewsPrepare Your Child For Pre-School With a 3D-Printed Baby Rattle Sword
Sending your child off to pre-school for the first time is apparently a stressful time for parents. But if you’ve properly prepared them for the challenges of dealing with other kids, like by playing with a 3D-printed baby rattle that looks like a miniature broadsword, they should be just fine. The plans for this unique … Continued
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Tech NewsThis 3D Printer Makes Robots That Can Walk Away as Soon as They’re Done
Bringing the world one step closer to having real-life replicators like Star Trek promised, researchers at MIT’s CSAIL lab have developed a new 3D printing technique that allows fully-functional robots to be created in a single print run. Add a motor and battery, and they’re able to walk right out of the 3D printer. Typically, … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Turn Your Smartphone’s Camera Flash Into the Bat-Signal
If you find yourself in trouble you can always use your phone to dial 911. Or you can reach for this compact 3D-printed lens that turns your smartphone’s camera flash into the Bat-Signal, summoning someone who can help but who also has a way cooler car than the police do. Designed by Dalpek, the 3D … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsGiant Multi-Headed 3D Printer Can Create Massive Objects in One Pass
The trade-off of an affordable 3D printer is that they’re usually small and can only produce small objects. To make something big, you have to break it down into smaller parts first. But Autodesk has come up with a better approach: a 3D printer with multiple heads that all work together to churn out massive … Continued
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Tech NewsWatch What Happens When You Ship a 3D Printer While It’s Still Printing
3D printers have revolutionized the speed at which prototype parts can be created, but what if your deadline is so tight you can’t wait for the printer to finish before the part is shipped out? That’s easy, you just pack up the entire printer in a box, with a battery for power, and send it … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
This Cheap 3D-Printed Antenna Works Just as Well as Its Expensive Siblings
This light pink plastic dish may look like something from your grandmother’s china collection, but in fact it’s the European Space Agency’s first 3D-printed dual-reflector antenna. And it works surprisingly well. The antenna, with a corrugated feedhorn and two reflectors, was printed as a single unit using a plastic polymer then given a thin lick … Continued
By Attila Nagy -
Tech News3D Printing Your Own Braces Works, Is a Terrible Idea
At the age of nine, I became the first kid in my elementary school class to get braces. They did their job, but by the time I left college, I’d lost my retainers and my teeth had drifted back into disarray. Imagine the feeling of kinship, then, when I saw this blog post by a … Continued
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Tech News
Hasbro Patented a 3D Scanner For Kids That Uses a Smartphone to Digitize Toys
Mattel might be the first to market with a 3D printer aimed at kids, but Hasbro isn’t sitting by and letting its main competitor have all the 3D fun. The company just patented a kid-friendly 3D scanner that can digitize small objects using a smartphone’s camera and clever software. Given how the company has already … Continued
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Tech News
That Secret 3D Scan of Nefertiti’s Bust Was a Hoax
Last month, Gizmodo and other outlets reported on artists who had secretly 3D scanned Nefertiti’s Bust, making it available for anyone to 3D print. Well, we were fooled—it appears it was a hoax, and the scan is not new. Multimedia artist and 3D printing consultant Cosmo Wenman investigated the claims made by Nora Al-Badri and … Continued
By Kate Knibbs -
Tech NewsWe Beat Up Under Armour’s New 3D-Printed Shoe
It’s been 20 years since Under Armor changed the way football players wicked sweat out of their pits. Since then the company’s expanded to producing all kinds of apparel as well as shoes. To celebrate its twentieth anniversary Under Armour is tackling a brand new market: 3D-printing. The UA Architech is the first performance shoe … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Tech News
A Creepy Topless 3D-Printed Portrait: The Ideal Gift for a Person You Hate
Who wouldn’t want to receive a small and realistic replica of you without your clothes on? Our British counterparts at Gizmodo UK report that you can order one of these terrifying Nudee models from Firebox right now. All you have to supply is a pair of pictures of the head you’d like immortalized—one from the … Continued
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Tech NewsA Smartphone Can Copy a 3D Model By Just Recording the Sounds of a 3D Printer
With an experiment that’s not going to help alleviate any concerns over 3D printing and piracy, researchers at the University of California Irvine have proven that they can copy a 3D model, with surprising accuracy, by simply recording the sounds that another 3D printer makes while it’s making it. The servos, pumps, and extruders that … Continued
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Tech NewsIt Takes 3 Months Just to 3D Print All the Parts For This Detailed Millennium Falcon Model
You’d need a massive, and prohibitively expensive, 3D printer to create this 40-inch long Millennium Falcon replica in one pass. So the folks at Gambody have broken the model down into 236 bite-size pieces that most affordable 3D printers can easily handle. All you need is lots and lots of time. Gambody’s Falcon is not … Continued
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Tech NewsArtists Have Secretly 3D-Scanned Nefertiti’s Bust For Anyone to Print
If you’ve ever fancied having Nefertiti’s likeness on your shelf at home, it’s now eminently achievable. A pair of artists have covertly 3D-scanned the famous bust in its museum setting, making the data publicly available—and they even plan to exhibit a printed version back in Egypt. While archaeologists still search for Nefertiti’s tomb, her bust—discovered … Continued