User:Wjf5042

Blog #2

The features in the demo are very similar to the word processing programs we use today. It is surprising how well the technology worked and how easy it was to use a pointing device instead of typing all of the commands. This is very impressive technology at least for the time when it was revealed. The user interface was difficult to see because of the low quality video, but he easily performed various typing tasks. It seemed like there weren't any icons to click, but moving around on the screen seemed exponentially easier than using tab or arrow keys. At the time, I don't think the majority of the public would have appreciated this technology, since I would imagine not very many people had access to computers. I am sure that this computer would have been very expensive if not too expensive for the normal public.

Professor Doyle says that the public thought that the demo was fake, since this was so groundbreaking. It deviated from the norm of huge computer systems, which brought doubt into people if something like this could be real. We share the information that we generate in order to receive recognition. However, when there is a profit to be made we want to capitalize on this so we make it intellectual property. That creates barriers for people to access the technology which in turn hinders improvements and innovation. We should share our information because many people think differently about problems, and different solutions can come out of this. If we patent our efforts, the innovation stops dead. Open source helps make better end products, since everyone can benefit from the ideas that are contributed. It is then possible to branch off of the open source track to bring products to market, but this ends up making roadblocks if intellectual property is claimed.

Blog #1

1. useful

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:41968  We have all hit our thumbs at some point when hammering. This helps hold the nail for easy driving.   

2. artistic/beautiful

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:42570 A vase with twists is eye catching and could be a good valentines present. 

3. pointless/useless

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:20145 A swizzle stick for drinks does absolutely nothing for me. 

4. funny/weird

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2673 Diy hip replacement might be useful later in life, but hopefully it won't be printed out of PLA.
 

5. scary/strange

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5956 It looks like a mutated human with bottle opener hands.  I don't know what possessed these objects to merge.  

B.

I feel that I am a tinkerer. I have been tearing apart and fixing things since I was young with my grandfathers help. When something breaks, my first instinct is to try and find out what went wrong and try and find out how to fix it. I agree that modern goods are much less tinkerer friendly. they are not usually made to last, or parts are too specialized to properly replace. American made goods are usually more repairable than foreign goods just like automobiles. I think that the habitat of tinkerers will be preserved no matter what the circumstances because they make things work and are always searching for solutions. Design projects stem from problems and perceived necessities. I feel that our class is similar to the video in that we have a very diverse set of majors that can contribute to the class. The fact that a world renowned inventor is building a 3D printer shows that the technology is relevant and can be used by most people. It allows fast and easy ways to make ideas real. We can use his idea of bringing many different backgrounds together to solve problems and come up with innovative solutions.

Blog #15 G. Printing houses is a neat idea in theory, but until houses are actually printed and their durability is tested, I will be skeptical of the feasibility. One of the good things about printing using plastic, is that the layers harden quickly. When using concrete, the layers may slump if care or time is not taken to solidify each layer. Sourcing of the materials would also be a challenge, as with conventional built houses. The plumbing and electrical systems that would be integrated into the printed concrete would have limited access for repair or upgrading, and we don't know how taking a section of the concrete out would effect the building's strength. This could be compared to 3D printing a solid video game controller with integrated electronics. There would be no way to replace the electronics and the object would have to be discarded. Depending on how much the 3D printed house would cost, I would consider living in one if it was significantly cheaper than other houses. I would not like how it would be very difficult to put additions on because of the structure.

Blog #14 C. The reprap class structure is very diverse. It focuses on a student's individual strengths, by allowing students to choose what type of projects to work on. There are tasks that need to be completed throughout the semester by all students such as blogs and wiki edits, but other than that none of the students are forced to do things in areas that they may not be the strongest in.personally, I came into the class having no experience with 3D printers, and little to no electronic experience. I was able to work on building a printer and also fix and replace parts on printers. Doing things with my hands and troubleshooting mechanical problems is something I am good at, whereas designing in solidworks or writing new code for arduinos I have little experience or desire. The very first day of class I was intimidated having no knowledge of 3D printers, but after completing the class I have a greater understanding of how they work and how to operate them.

Blog #13 All three of the recycling systems look like they would work. The Filabot seems to be the most promising based on the website, however it looks like it would have to be bought, and most likely couldn't be made unlike the repraps. The $250 Lyman extruder has been made before, unlike the recyclebot which has no actual pictures of the physical product. Recycling systems could be very valuable to the reprap community since printing usually creates a lot of waste plastic. Building one sounds like it would be a lot of work, since we haven't had any experience with these before. As with constructing repraps there are tricks that can be used to make it easier. Unless you have many printers such as Penn State does, $250+ is an investment not to be taken lightly. It can however be useful if you don't care if the filament is a uniform specific color. Some of the recyclers can use materials other than premanufactured filament which would allow for re-purposing of some plastics.

Blog #12

I think it is capitalizing on the novelty of being able to print trinkets. The staples idea is smart, because they are one of the first places to offer 3D printing to the public. If 3D printing becomes more popular, Staples will have a lead on the market. I bet that Staples will have to watch copyright infringement closely since they could be held accountable for printing the objects. If anti-piracy software will come to be, I can see public printing stations being the first places to implement them.

I feel like the person printing service will only appeal as a novelty to parents since they value memories of their children. I can see a use in weight loss as a motivation for losing weight and to also track progress. It is semi expensive and would probably survive in shopping malls with all of the other novelty displays. The initial investment on the printer and the need to be scanned for 15 minutes for the sole purpose of replicating portraits makes it less attractive to potential startups. Competition is not likely to drive the price much lower, due to the expensive nature of the printers. The makerbot print service should make it less expensive due to the lack of multi-colored prints.

Blog #11

I could see the technology being useful in the high school educational environment. Knowledge of CAD and 3D modeling is necessary in order to produce files to be printed. Usually schools do not teach this before 9-12th grade. The digital repository that was talked about in one of the articles would be too complex for most schools. Simple parts could be printed using only the teachers help, and get rid of the need to have off site support and printing services. The idea is to be a self sufficient printing center. Hopefully the printers would be of quality that would need minimal fixing, or at least have technical support available unlike the reprap printers that we use. The use of 3D printers will help students with creativity, since you can print almost anything, and it is relatively cheap.

Blog #10

1. 3D printers are becoming more common and cheaper to obtain. Reprap type printers do not have the extreme precision of the multi- thousand dollar printers. Costing a couple of hundred dollars, it isn't impossible to imagine printers in households. They can be marketed to do-it-yourself people or even for children's toys. Just like we had easy bake ovens as children, we could have cheap printers that made custom shaped food. We will however see a big push to try and combat pirating of objects. This may hinder the advancement of 3D printing depending if there is government intervention. Schools could use the technology to bring ideas to life whether it was designing art projects or CAD-like models.

Blog #9

1. Libraries are an excellent place to have 3D printers, especially in a technologically advanced area such as a university. The possibilities are limitless for many different backgrounds as stated in the article about printers in libraries. One of the downsides is the cost of a 3D printer, which means all libraries couldn't afford one. If students had greater access to 3D printers, it would allow things such as models to be made with ease without consuming a lot of time. Even if you paid for the filament that was used, the public having access to this technology without buying a printer would be invaluable. It would be like renting a book from the library, except you would be renting time on the machine.

2. I mainly use the engineering library, since it has material that is relevant and useful for my studies. It would be valuable to have a 3D printer that students could use for projects like the EDSGN 100 students do with the print service that we are running. If funding permits, hopefully the technology will be integrated into libraries so that 3D printing can be affordable to everyone. Libraries that are accessed by architecture students could be great candidates for 3D printers because they could print the models that they usually make from hand from only a CAD file.

Blog #8

1. Patents for DRM will be detrimental to the 3D printing community. Patenting a way to control distribution of files is a huge opportunity to make money. It will cut down on freedom, and make more things illegal. This technology will definitely be used since companies will try their hardest to protect "intellectual" property. This is going to hurt the open source nature of the 3D printing industry. This DRM should be placed on for profit printers, since they are corporate run machines. If you build a printer from the ground up, it should be able to print every thing you want it to.

Blog #7

1. Optical sensing capabilities may make more precise devices such as computer mice, which no longer use a ball to track movements. The fewer the moving parts a device has, the less likely it is to break. as shown in the video, controllers will become more touch oriented by using light as a way to sense movement.

2. Light piping requires crystal clear fiber optic quality. There is no good way to print fiber optics currently, since usually fiber optics are glass based. Making the piping reflect light and not dissipate it is a challenge that needs to be overcome. We may be able to place pre-existing light pipes in while the printing is taking place.

3. Gaming systems such as PS3 might benefit from this technology since it would be possible to reduce the moving parts and reduce the possibility of buttons breaking or wearing out. Cell phones could be printed that are waterproof since the electronics would be contained in the material that it is printed from. It may mean that you would have to throw the phone away if it malfunctioned, but that is the direction phones are already moving with non user removable/ replaceable batteries. I currently don't have any ideas or projects that could use this technology.

Blog #6 1. I think bio printing could be an excellent medical innovation. If we are able to print parts like ears that are made of living tissue it could change medicine as we know it. The stem cell research is being done, which could provide a material to print with. Legal issues can arise when the printed organs don't live or function correctly which may result in lawsuits.

2. Repraps in university settings may be able to to do bio research, but I do not foresee personal uses of this technology. Sterility is a big concern when dealing with tissues and organs. Being able to keep the environment around the printer clean and at safe temperatures would be almost impossible for your average reprap owner. I think it is best if the professionals do the research that may impact our health at some point down the road.

Blog #5

1. The gun project has faced a setback, however I doubt this will stop progress completely. Since they don't have any way of printing now, time should be spent designing the guns, and also trying to get the FFL license. The goal is to distribute plans for making a gun, so that is comparable to selling weapons. If they go the legal route, they can be on the same level as companies with more credibility.

2. As someone who thinks it would be neat to try and print a gun, I think the element of safety should be most important. If everyone tries to print these out, and they all explode causing injuries, there will be a big problem. Regulation takes away freedom, but safety is a goal here. Most likely, gun manufacturers will not use the plastic parts to actually fire bullets, nut only to mock up parts that will be made of metal or stronger material. Regulation would have to come in the form of software from the manufacturers of the circuit boards being used. In the open source community, this will be very hard to do, at least for the printers that already exist.

3. I think that objects such as handcuff keys that are hard to obtain or illegal to carry will be a problem. The dutch police have had problems with the replication of their hard to reproduce handcuff key.

Blog #4

The 3d printing world seems to be moving away from being totally open source. Makerbot is a profit driven company, and is trying to capitalize on the fact that free support for setting up the machines is not making the company much money. Open source is good in theory, but the time it takes for everything to run well motivates people to make money instead of doing that for free. I think that we should move away from Thingiverse, because everything that has been uploaded they now own. Another site could easily be made that serves the same purpose, without having Makerbot own it. I agree with Prusa in that each person should remove their files from Thingiverse and not upload any more, since Makerbot has shut the open source world out.

Blog #3 1. DRM will most likely stay due to the possibility of profit being made. Either the files can be sold for profit, or enforcement of illegal downloading of the files by way of lawsuits are the two options. The creators of the files and designs don't want to give up their ideas for free, so that is why DRM will still be around.

2. I am passionate about helping the public have a better place to live. I will try to achieve this with my career as a Civil Transportation Engineer. The roads designed will hopefully help ease movement from place to place. I think this would be attracive to a mate with a higher intellect due to the engineering background.

3. 3D printing may kill intellectual property if there is still a way to distribute ideas and designs. Shutting down sites that host such material has become a goal of the government, so this is one obstacle for the 3D printing world. I agree that intellectual property should be killed, because it hinders creativity and modifications that make products better. Intellectual property allows the creator to reap the benefits of his or her design, but if the design could be better, the best design should survive.

Blog #2

1. His idea is feasible up to a point, which is the limitation of electrical hardware. Different materials can be printed, but the hardware such as the micro controllers would have to be manufactured elsewhere which is a limitation. With the evolution of the printers, small improvements are made and more printed parts can be used. Printers that are able to print circuits would help solve the problem with the electronics.

2. "Wealth without money" is an accurate description of 3D printing. These printers will allow regular people to do what industry can do but on a smaller scale. If there is a part you want to print, all that needs to be done is to make the file and the sky is the limit. There will be no more ordering parts from manufacturing that are not too specialized when you can just print them. It will probably mean tighter cracking down on patents and the associated CAD files of the objects.

3. The evolution from the Darwin design has been rapid and efficient. The open design of the RepRap community does wonders for the evolution of 3D printers, since new ideas are tested and shared throughout the community. Future designs for RepRaps may include being able to use metal and other stronger materials which would hold up better than the plastic being used today. More commercialized vendors of open source printers will probably have a hard time surviving due to the technical support aspect of maintaining a printer. The community will probably not want to support a for-profit private vendor, when there are endless opportunities in the RepRap open source community.

Blog #1

1. useful
This is a filter cap for 3/8 in pipe. I have made pipe covers from cloth before, but a printed cap would be more durable and allow water to flow better.
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2. artistic/beautiful
This object was made by taking a mathematical surface and turning it into an actual object. It would be really hard to make this with any other method such as CNC milling, so that is one advantage of 3D printing.
[2]

3. pointless/useless
I have seen this box made of wood before, but a printable model will do nothing for you as you cant keep the switch on.
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4. funny
iPhones are everywhere, and most people use them when eating lunch dinner etc. so the iSpork is a spork that attaches to your phone so that you can be the ultimate multi-tasker.
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5. weird
I think everyone could use a bowel disruptor at some point, but someone should figure out how to make a functioning model.
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