Can't wait for 3-D printed grills. Are you listening, Lil Wayne?
Posted 05.10.2011 at 4:38 pm
6 Comments
Titanium 3-D Printed Chopstick Prostheses
Scott Summit
i.Materialize recently announced the (somewhat wordy) Machine Man Human Augmentation Design Challenge, to be judged by (among others) our friend Hod Lipson of Cornell's Fab@Home. The challenge: Designers will submit proposals for 3-D printed titanium implants or augmentations to the human body. They can be either functional, like traditional prostheses, or purely aesthetic, like, say, an earring that provides better cellphone reception by turning the body into an antenna. Basically, this is the first step to us all becoming X-Men.
The contest rules are fairly simple, and also fairly modest--no titanium claws quite yet. The proposal has to be in a typical 3-D printing format like STL or OBJ, the final object cannot be larger than 4 cubic centimeters or have walls thinner than 0.4 mm, and it must be fully functional (or awesome-looking) directly out of the printer. That means no added electronics or parts can be added afterwards--this thing has to be printed and done, just like that.
It's an awfully open-ended contest, with tons of possible ways to interpret it. i.Materialize imagines the aforementioned earring-as-antenna, but also chopsticks that attach to fingers, printed titanium teeth (which is where Lil Wayne comes in), or some kind of implant that holds your nose open so you can breathe easier without one of those adhesive things football players wear. The full contest rules are here--we're looking forward to some great ideas, especially after seeing the future of 3-D printing.
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how about a seres of back implants to support or replace the spine?
less than 4 cubic centimeters, i can't even get a titanium scrotal-shield. Sounds like what you'd call an implant, i'd call a piercing.. of course, now is the time to design some awesome piercings to submit.. Technically, piercings are implants anyway, at least partially implanted, and to implant something, piercing of the body is required. so.. how about a chinese rapist trap (like a chinese finger trap, but for rapist' offending organs) ah, yes, and who could forget the Titanium buttplug? Anyway, i'd have to say Titanium fingernail replacements, and Titanium screwdriverfingers (though painful to use) i really can't think of much because of the 4cm³ limitation, or i'd have some good ones.
how about a program that is free, powerful, yet intuitive and will allow me to compete in this?
i thought the picture was wolverine claw implants.
Nah, those are implanted into the radius as stylus and pen holders. :/
Man, with this limitations they are totally restricting any potential use other than things that are basically useless. I mean, How about bone splints that act as an internal cast, that remain with the patient for the remainder of their life. Internal crutches if you will. You can't replace the bone all together due to the function of the marrow, but partial coatings or attachments that still allow bloodflow around them while acting as structural supports, no more need to worry about osteoporosis. But that pesky 4cm limit just kills all that. My lobes are stretched past 4cm, so I couldn't even print off a killer set of plugs for myself.