When we announced the USV investment in Shapeways a little over a year ago, I pointed out the potential to make New York City a global center for 3D printing. Since then the Shapeways team has done a lot to make that happen. Here are just a few of the highlights. First, the founders…
Emergent Futures Tumblelog
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Autodesk bringing 3D modeling to the masses | CNET News
You may not know CAD, but if you’ve got a computer, you can now start creating 3D models.
That’s the idea behind 123D Catch and 123D Make, two new free software applications that Autodesk is planning on releasing on Monday. The two programs join the company’s existing iPad app, 123D Sculpt, as part of a family of tools that are intended to give just about anyone the ability not just to make their own 3D designs, but also to get them produced as real, physical models.
Autodesk unveiled the two new applications at a press event at its innovation center here today, making the argument that just about anyone can now play the role of 3D modeler that has traditionally belonged to CAD experts and other professional designers.
With 123D Catch, a user can take any digital camera and use it to photograph a real-world object. By snapping a few dozen pictures from angles all around the object and then uploading them to Autodesk’s cloud-based system via the software, the user can within minutes get back a 3D model of the object. Autodesk will process the model at no charge.
This is of course feeding into he the 3D printing development as well.
Apple acquired mind-blowing 3D mapping company C3 Technologies, looking to take iOS Maps to the next level
Full Story: 9to5Mac
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How 3-D Printing & Augmented Reality Can Help Design Better Drugs
And now for today’s awesome science update: Arthur Olson’s Molecular Graphics Lab uses 3-D printers to spit out physical models of drugs and enzymes, and attaches augmented-reality tags to them so that computer vision can help researchers find the optimal fit. Think of it like playing with a Rubik’s cube, except the solution may help cure HIV.
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Sony’s head-mounted 3D visor is real, HMZ-T1 arrives in Japan November 11th - Engadget
Remember that crazy wearable 3D display concept Sony was showing off at CES 2011? Turns out the company is actually going to make it, and the HMZ-T1 is scheduled to be released in Japan on November 11th. While the design has changed slightly since we first laid our eyes, and heads, on it, the specs appear to be the same, with two 1280x720 0.7-inch OLED panels mounted in front of each eye giving the wearer an experience similar to viewing a 750-inch screen from 20m away, as well as 5.1 surround sound from headphones integrated into the Head Mounted Display (HMD). You can see the helmet above, as well as the processor unit (complete with HDMI input and output, so you can take off the helmet and watch on TV) that it must remain tethered to. Pricing is expected to be 60,000 yen ($783 US). Check out the press release and our hands-on video from CES after the break and decide if living out a Geordi La Forge-style fantasy is worth it.
Full Story: TechRadarThe future of 3D internet and computer interfaces
3D tech is revolutionising how we interact with our gadgets
Third dimension adds $360m to TV sales: it is still only 4pc of the market, but it is growing at 300pc
AUSTRALIANS have taken to three-dimensional technology, spending $361 million in the past year on 3D television sets, although market penetration remains modest at just over 4 per cent.
Full Story: The Australian
Paul Higgins: Not really Sure about this one. How much is take up of high end screens that have this in them any way and how much is the novelty and bragging to the neighbours factor is uncertain. If I had to make a definitive statement I would say that this will slow significantly unless it becomes a standard feature of all new screens and even then until the technology improves a fair bit the use will not be that high. Way early on the hype cycle
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3-D Avatars Could Put You in Two Places at Once
If Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson are right, here is what’s in store for you and your avatar very soon, probably within the next five years:
1) Without leaving your living room or office, you’ll sit at three-dimensional virtual meetings and classes, looking around the table or the lecture hall at your colleagues’ avatars.
2) Your avatar will be programmed to make a better impression than you could ever manage.
3) While your avatar sits there at the conference table gazing alertly and taking notes, you can do something more important: sleep.
Does this sound like future hype? Your first instinct may be to classify it with the old predictions — see World’s Fair, 1964 — that there would soon be a picturephone in every kitchen. It took half a century for video phone calls to become affordable and usable. But in their new book,Infinite Reality Dr. Blascovich and Dr. Bailenson insist that 3-D conferences with avatars are nigh because consumer technology has suddenly caught up with the work going on in their virtual-reality laboratories in academia. Thesepsychologists point to three developments in the past year: the Microsoft Kinect tracking system for the Xbox, the Nintendo 3DS gaming device, and the triumph on “Jeopardy!” of I.B.M.’s Watson computer.
Source: NY Times
(NOTE: See the IBM Virtual Center for our own cutting edge 3D, avatar-based, voice-enabled and easy to use virtual meeting and conference space.)
Why Marriott Wants Digital Renderings of Everything
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Marriott International has been using computer-aided design (CAD) tools for more than 20 years. The software makes it much faster and cheaper for the company to plan renovations or new hotels. Now the hotel chain is focused on achieving what might be considered the next generation of efficiency from CAD software: using it to tackle the seemingly unrelated issue of supply-chain management.
Source: Technology Review
Marriott uses software tools made by Autodesk for virtually all of its designs for 3,200 properties in nearly 70 countries. In the past, the company would have carpenters build a mock-up of a new room or lobby to determine the design’s suitability. By dispensing with that step, the company has reduced its design costs by 90 percent, and its facilities are ready for guests six months faster.
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