3D Printers are becoming cheaper every day.

Just as college students swapping mp3s over university networks in the mid 90′s were half a decade ahead of the music industry, perhaps the popularity and strong community that have formed behind hobbyist 3D printer platforms are an indicator of things to come in the realm of tangible objects.

I have worked with 3D printers and the various tools that are available for duplicating, creating and editing the relatively specialized 3D geometry needed to create objects from them. From that experience I can say that while the challenges of hardware is primarily one of atoms (ie design a faster machine, develop better resolution, invent a wider variety of substrates etc) and solvable by traditional means. On the other hand, the challenge of the bits (how to develop flexible, usable and powerful tools that don’t require years of training and experience to use) is a lot more exciting and open-ended to me. Will we see exchanges like Google’s 3D Warehouse, or will companies spring up that specialize in creating, improving upon, and distributing 3D models of useful objects? Shapeways seems to fit this model, though I suspect at this point their service is a bit of a novelty and they are positioning themselves as a ‘creator of elegant curiosities’ rather than a ‘creator of unsexy-but-potentially-incredibly-useful objects.’

Read the full article at
Ars Technica – 3D fabbers: don’t let the DMCA stifle an innovative future

MakeDo is a deceptively simple system for quickly and easily assembling pieces of cardboard, paper, fabric or plastic into … anything! The system includes basic connectors, as well as two different types of hinges. Also included is a special tool for cutting and poking the necessary holes in your materials. With only the tools and parts you find in the box, you can assemble structures, creatures, costumes or anything else you can dream up.

MakeDo is clearly marketed toward children, but having spent my share of time in both product design and exhibit design firms building mockups and prototypes, I can say these little snaps and hinges would be a welcome addition to the gaffers tape, hot glue, foamcore and exacto-knives of a professional model or prototype shop. Check out this quick video for a sense of what’s possible.

First, the fact that the complete interaction can be described so clearly in 40 seconds shows how novel and intuitive this little thing is. I don’t even need to describe what it does. It clearly combines form, interaction and customizability in one elegant package. It is in short – a great idea. However, while I won’t be surprised when I see something like this on a store shelf sometime soon, what struck me was the use of physical and digital prototyping tools to so completely and effectively express the idea.

The body is built with a 3D printer and the electronics are all off-the-shelf development tools such as Arduino and XBee, with the addition of an FM radio, accelerometer and speaker. None of these tools are custom and none of the technologies are opaque. In fact, all of the schematics, models and code are available on the Radioball Blog Entry. This entire project was realized by two people in a “short time” in order to serve as a “starting point for conversation about the need for richer, more spatial interactions.”

What I tend to write about are essentially tools to aid in, facilitate or speed up a traditional design process. What I find so exciting about Radioball is that an entire functional prototype was developed to describe the idea. I can write about tools that make 3D modeling easier, software to help you build walk-throughs, or electronics that you can use to aid in detailed user studies, but those are still essentially tools that aid an old-fashioned process. This thing is completely new, both in concept and execution. I can’t wait to see more projects like this and won’t hesitate to share what I find.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to start building my parts list for building (and maybe improving upon) my own Radioball.