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Since the beginning, man has sought to create. We built tools to help us survive, buildings to house our great industries, even monuments commemorating our triumphs. We all want to leave our mark on the world, and now we can relax and let machines do it for us!
3D printers are lovely little devices that build objects piece by piece according to your custom design specifications. Their ease of use and relatively low price tag has allowed doctors, startup businesses, and even private individuals to design and create whatever they can imagine. Some, like the Thingmaker, even target children who want to make their own toys!
As with any new tech innovation, 3D printers have opened a world of creativity to the masses. A world that spans the wonderful to the truly weird. Here are some of the coolest, most bizarre things people have dreamed up so far.
1. The Printed Dead
Someone smart once said “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Well, why stop there? Now you can see history, as it stares back at you, through cold, lifeless eyes.
Archeologists in England resurrected a member of the royal family. Well, his head, at least. After finding the remains of the late (very late) King Richard III under a parking lot, archeologists sent his measurements off to a facial reconstruction expert. The expert, Caroline Wilkinson of the university of Dundee, then built a life-size 3D model of his head.
We now know what a five hundred and fifty year old king looks like. Not bad, all things considered.
2. Iron Boy
Thanks to 3D printers, you can now buy custom fit prosthetic limbs. This technology benefits millions, but Albert Manero decided it just wasn’t cool enough.
Albert created a myoelectric arm (a prosthetic that moves and functions just like a real arm) for a young boy named Alex. The new arm would have been more than enough, but Mr. Manero put a bit more flair into the design. He created a robotic arm fashioned after Alex’s favorite super hero: Iron Man. The fun didn’t stop there either, Iron Man himself Robert Downey Jr. showed up to deliver the new prosthetic limb!
3. Beyond Prosthetic
The latest craze in the medical world is 3D bioprinting. Lose part of your ear in a bar fight? Doctors can now order you a brand new one, but that’s not the crazy part.
The scientists at Princeton University decided they wanted to make something more than human. They created a set of enhanced ears. These ears have the ability to pick up audio frequencies outside the normal range of us regular people. They can even pick up radio frequencies, so you’ll never have to deal with those pesky earbuds again!
The first step into the world of bionics opens a new stage of human evolution. Pretty soon movies like Ghost in the Shell will look more like documentaries than science fiction.
4. Sad Little Keanu
It all started with a photo. Some voyeuristic paparazzo took a few innocent pictures of Keanu Reeves (the sad puppydog of hollywood) as he was sitting on a bench eating a sandwich.
The images hit the internet and EXPLODED! The “sad Keanu” meme was an international sensation. With Photoshoppers sticking him everywhere from movie posters to pictures of pandas.
It was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to use this phenomenon to make money. Shapeways produced and marketed a miniature 3D printed version of the somber Mr. Reeves, small enough to fit in your pocket. Not only was this a really weird idea, it actually worked. The little Keanu became a meme on its own, and even the star himself seems to enjoy the idea.
5. Planet-Friendly Printing
Tired of sitting and staring lazily at your 3D printer all day, waiting for your miniature Keanu Reeves to finish printing? Are you sick of spending your hard earned cash on the raw materials so you can print him some friends?The solution is here!
A small design lab in Taipei has found a cheap and earth friendly way to spend less on plastics, and keep its waistline trim. It has developed a mobile 3D printer that uses plastics from roadside trash to create… whatever you feel like creating. It slapped the mobile 3D printer on the front of a bicycle and dubbed it “mobile Fab”.
Finally a way to stay fit as a fiddle, and print yourself a new fiddle at the same time.
6. 3D Fetus
We have all seen soon-to-be parents showing everyone with eyeballs the grainy black-and-white sonogram image of their little bundle of joy.
The latest innovation in pregnancy tech will take a 3D scan of your unborn baby, then print a life-size statuette of your fetal progeny. Maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t brag about having a flesh colored 3D model of a fetus chilling on my mantle.
7. Replace your Face
Another case of 3D printers mimicking the human form comes from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. PhD student Heather Dewey-Hagborg is working on a project that is rather unsettling.
Dewey-Hagborg takes found objects like hair, or cigarette butts, and sequences the DNA. She feeds the data into into special software that estimates what that person would look like. A printer spits out a 3D model of a complete stranger, and she mounts it on her wall as an art piece.
Imagine entering an art gallery and finding your disembodied head hanging from the wall. That would be rather unsettling, wouldn’t it?
8. Micro Machines
In New Zealand a man is printing himself a classic car. In China they are printing entire buildings. Size matters in the world of 3D printing, and bigger is better.
Researchers in Vienna are looking to prove this theory wrong. Focusing on the very small, they have begun producing models on a microscopic scale. This nano printer creates models of bridges, formula one racecars, even cathedrals; all smaller than the width of a human hair.
9. Burritobot 1.0
Taco Bell employees and purveyors of fake Mexican food the world over should be terrified. Burritobot is here!
NYU grad student Marco Manriquez created a truly delicious thesis project. He designed a printer to make custom burritos for your dining pleasure. Place a tortilla on the machine, fiddle with the user friendly iOS app to get those fillings just right, and in minutes you can munch on a yummy burrito built by a cold, lifeless machine.
10. The “Pedroscope”
Have you ever seen a miniature horse at the county fair? They are Shetland Ponies and they are adorable. One such pony lives in London. His name is Pedro, and when the people at Ebony Horse Club adopted him they discovered a small problem. Pedro was far too short for his stable.
It seemed he would never see the smiling faces of the happy children who came to visit him. Luckily the children had a plan. They designed what can only be described as a pony periscope. The plans were sent to design firm Print and Cut, which was all too happy to print out a prototype. Just like a human periscope the “pedroscope” uses mirrors to allow Pedro to see over the wooden door of his stall.
This group of inner city school children helped a miniature horse feel ten feet tall.
Photo Credit: 3D-scanned statue of Albert Einstein by Creative Tools (CC BY)
