Interview with Karl Willis of Interactive Fabrication
Karl Willis is the man behind the Fabricate Yourself, a tool that lets you strike a pose in front of an Xbox Kinect and then 3D prints the results. Karl works at Interactive Fabrication, a team at Carnegie Mellon University that is developing tools that let anyone design for digital fabrication. The image above is a screenshot of Karl”s Kinect scan and the image below is a point cloud of the scan. We virtually sat down with Karl so he could tell us about his work on Fabricate Yourself.
Who made this?
The programming was done by me. It was kept running during the conference with the help of Cheng Xu, Nicolas Villar and James Scott.
 Why?
The bigger picture is to explore new interfaces for digital fabrication. Specifically ones that are accessible, but still empower people to be creative. ”Fabricate Yourself” came about as we brainstormed what to do with a 3D printer Stratasys had provided us with, and how best to document the conference community.Â
I have a
Fabricate Yourself: Using the Microsoft Kinnect to 3D print yourself
One of the most exciting research initiatives in 3D printing is Interactive Fabrication. Rather than focus on 3D printing itself Interactive Fabrication focusess on the interface. The team consisting of Karl D.D. Willis, Cheng Xu & Kuan-Ju Wu and headed by Mark Gross develops software and tools that let people design, in the broadest sense of the word. Beautiful Modeler is a great previous example of this. And now Karl Willis has developed Fabricate Yourself.
With Fabricate Yourself people can strike poses in front of a Microsoft Kinect. They can then choose their favorite pose and it will be turned into an STL file and 3D printed. By using a widely available easy to use platform such as the Kinect and by limiting people’s input to actions anyone can do quickly their interface lets anyone 3D print. Basically the team has made 3D printing yourself as easy as posing for a photo. It is tools such as Fabricate Yourself that will bring 3D printing to the widest audience. The Fabrica
This week in 3D printing: February 19th to 25th
February 19th The Economist reports on the Organovo bioprinter.
February 22nd. Hos Lipson talks to the BBC about Cornells work on printing tissue. Â
February 22nd. The MacCormack brothers Mcor paper 3D printer starts distribution in Europe. One distributor is Netherlands based 3D Worknet & the other is a Germany based based company that is also a premium Apple reseller.
February 22nd. With continueing its Pokemon inspired M&A streak 3D Systems buys Quickparts.
Febuary 24th. RepRap stalwart and Ultimaker founder Erik de Bruijn appears on popular Dutch TV show De Wereld Draait Door and demonstrates 3D printing a whistle.
3D Printing in Medicine: What’s Happening Right Now
I applaud all the attention that 3D printing has been getting in the media lately. But, I’ve also noticed that many people are now thinking that 3D printing is something that was invented last week and will be relevant in five years. I’ve asked the two biggest experts on the 3D printing industry Terry Wohlers and Phil Reeves to provide us with some information to redress the balance.
The State of the 3D Printing Industry
Did you know for example that the 3D printing industry, according to Wohlers report 2010, had revenues of $1.068 billion in 2009? Terry Wohlers told me that just the medical and dental part of the industry was doing $157,000,000 in 2009. We”ll skip all the news from the laboratory and concentrate on what”s been happening right now in patients with 3D printing medicine.
3D Printed Hearing Aids
How many 3D printed hearing aids do you think there are? According to Phil Reeves best conservative estimate, there are “10,000,000 3D printed hearing aids in circulation
3D Systems buys Quickparts
3D Systems has just acquired Quickparts. Quickparts is a US based 3D printing and injection molding service. Quickparts serves the Business 2 Business marketplace and has revenues of $25 million. Quickparts is a high profile target and a jewel in the crown of 3D Systems recent 3D printing service bureau acquisition spree. Because the company expanded into easy online ordering before most, had a broad product line up and a CEO that wrote a book that was ahead of the curve this is certainly the most famous serive bureau in 3D Systems collection. Earlier the company also bought several other companies including Design Prototyping Technologies (a 3D printing service), National RP Support (A dealer and service organisation) and Bits From Bytes, a maker of entry level kit 3D printers. The spree seems to be working as the TDSC stock has been doing incredibly well over the last few months. It seems 3D Systems has embarked on the “big is beautiful” strategy and wants to b
Inventables, the store of want
I just discovered Inventables via Chris Lefteri. Inventables is a fantastic online store for…..I don”t know. All sorts of amazing is the best way to describe their selection. If you”re a Maker or artist their selection will make you salvate and perhaps swoon. They have…Â
Bendable wood.
Gearless angle drives.
Temperature Sensitive Glass
Super Hydrophobic Surface.
Water proof sand.
And much much more. I think its a very inspiring place and encourage you to go there should you be looking for just that special something for that special project.
Rhino 3D printing Contest winners announced
First off my apologies for announcing this so late.
3rd place goes to My Family Lamp by Pancho. Congratulations you win $200 in 3D printing! The My Family Lamp is “a lamp based in the number of members of your family. How many births are in your family? You can add members, so the bird light will be brigther.
The meaning is, To keep the family together and bring them light.”
The second place winner is twigg by npa. Congratulations you win $300 in 3D printing! Twigg is a vase for the everyday household bridging the gap betweeen esthetics and function. “Its simple form has been inspired by natural tree morphologies, translated as a mathematical theory called L-systems. Being parametric, Twigg can be reproduced to give individual variations of the same form. Twigg was created using Rhino, grasshopper and Rabbit 2.0.”
The winner is BevLamp by Rendy. Congratulations you win $500 in 3D printing and a i.materialise Appear lamp. “BevLamp is a Dimmer-LED Lamp. Ground concept
Peter Jansen”s Motionless Motion
Peter Jansen is an artist inspired by human motion. He, studied  “Physics and Philosophy at the university. For a number of years he worked as a guide, accompanying groups on survival and canoe trips, after which he dedicated his live entirely to the arts.” He makes many designs including the wonderful items you can see in the .MGX store in Brussels. “In his recent sculptures he captures sequences of human movements in space and time, in a single frame.” He made the sculpture Motionless Motion with us in Alumide. You can see more of his work on his website here.
The 3D printed V House by Gino Lomeli
I designed this house especially for the i.materialise ”World of Houses – SketchUp Challenge”. The V stands for view house.
This house would be primarily situated in Spain, in a place where the home would blend in with its environment, but at the same time be something man made. The site is a mountain top with views of a lake to the front of the home and views to the wilderness to the rear.
A cantilevered pool would extrude toward the lake side of the home reinforcing the connection with it”s surrounding, giving the sense of being inside the lake but at a higher level. The home is a breeze house which means most of all the windows are sliding “nana wall” type glazing.
Giving the home an energy efficient way of keeping it cool, while the green roof also aids in keeping the home cool. The web design around the home helps maintain privacy to a home that is entirely shielded by glass.
— Gino Lomeli
Gino”s dream house was designed using Google Sketchup and the
This week in 3D printing: February 12th to 18th
February 13th. Ten year old Schuyler st. Leger makes an amazing 3D printing presentation at Ingite Phoenix. Opinons are divided if young Schuyler St. Leger will opt for Nobel prize winner or billionaire as a chosen profession. I”ve set up a Google news alert to track him so I can be the first to tell you.
February 16th. Makerbot comes up with a new stepper motor extruder. That is reported on SF Gate because that”s how we roll nowadays. Â
February 17th. Kodak continues to be confusing.
February 18th. A toplogocial riddle turns into a DMCA takedown notice for 3D printing.
Image Creative Commons, Attribution Ignite Phoenix.
