LAS VEGAS — Perhaps the most exciting technology at Comdex this year was a 3D display that projected volumetric images into thin air, prompting show goers to gasp, burst out laughing and run around the booth in excitement.
At the back of one of the exhibit halls, Dimensional Media set up a booth full of 3D displays that projected images — of objects such as cell phones or soda cans… read more
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/three-dimensional-solar-energy-0327.html
MIT researchers are building cubes or towers that extend solar cells upward in three-dimensional configurations and show power output ranging from double to more than 20 times that of fixed flat panels with the same base area.
The biggest boosts in power were seen in the situations where improvements are most needed: in locations far from the equator, in winter months and on cloudier days.… read more
The 3D structure of the HIV virus has been revealed for the first time, scientists say.
The variable size and shape of HIV has made it hard to map, the team said in the journal Structure. So the UK-German team took hundreds of images of viruses and used a computer program to combine them.
“Identifying how the virus grows will allow us to address the formation of this… read more
3D printer leader 3D Systems announced today that it plans to provide Singularity University (SU) with several of its 3D printers.
“We are excited to be part of Singularity’s visionary initiative to democratize access to 3D content-to-print solutions that will enable greater entrepreneurialism and inventiveness,” said Abe Reichental, President and CEO of 3D Systems.
“SU has shown a great deal of foresight and leadership in… read more
3D Systems Corporation plans to unveil at CES its Cubify.com 3D software for creating designs for 3D printing on mobile devices, tablets and Kinect.
The company will also showcase its new Cube 3D consumer printer and make available 3D collection libraries for it as downloads.
3D systems also plans an online print shop where users without the 3D printer can send their creations for… read more
Technology advances such as accelerated graphics cards and graphics ports have driven PC hardware capabilities up and prices down, making 3D more accessible to consumers and furthering research on methods and algorithms.
Another key trends is overcoming network-bandwidth limitations by sending compressed content instead of full-resolution geometry.
3D graphics can be used to visualize objects and products prior to construction, model weather systems for meteorologists, study medical anomalies… read more
The virtual-reality StarCAVE at the University of California, San Diego allows groups of scientists to explore worlds as small as nanoparticles and as big as the cosmos, permitting new insights that could fuel discoveries in many fields.
Constructed by the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), the room operates at a combined resolution of over 68 million pixels distributed over 15 rear-projected walls and two floor screens.… read more
A device named pCubee gives you the experience of 3D without the need for the glasses.
Developed at the Human Communication Technologies Laboratory at the University of British Columbia, the pCubee consists of five LCD screens arranged as a cubic “fish tank” box that viewers can pick up, tilt, shake or turn to watch the 3D content or play games with virtual objects that seem to… read more
A fluorescent dye that enables high-resolution (about 1 micron) 3D images of the cerebral vascular system has been synthesized by researchers at the Laboratoire de Chimie (CNRS) in France in collaboration with the Institut des Neurosciences (Université Joseph Fourier).
The “Lem-PHEA chromophore” dye fluoresces in the red-near infrared region biological transparency window using two-photon absorption and can pass through the skin. It features solubility in biological… read more
Scientists at Princeton University have used a 3D printer to create a functional ear that can “hear” radio frequencies up to microwave frequencies.
The researchers’ primary purpose was to explore an efficient and versatile means to merge electronics with tissue. The scientists used 3D printing of cells and nanoparticles, followed by cell culture to combine a small coil antenna with cartilage, creating what they term… read more
Given the schematic for a simple circuit, here’s how to make it a real circuit with the base components, some conductive thread, and a 3D printer — no solder, no etching chemicals, no sending away for anything, Instructables explains in a how-to tutorial.
“We are entering an age where physical goods increasingly have a digital representation (e.g., www.thingiverse.com) — and the means of production of such goods are… read more
You might expect a robot’s heartbeat to be a metallic ticking. But the pulsing in this video isn’t completely artificial: it’s powered by living material, New Scientist reports.
Created by Peter Walters from the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK, and colleagues, the pump uses the gas released by live yeast to generate pressure and distend a membrane, turning it into an… read more
Cornell bioengineers and Weill Cornell Medical College physicians have created an artificial ear that looks and acts like a natural ear, giving new hope to thousands of children born with a congenital deformity called microtia.
They used 3-D printing and injectable gels made of living cells to fashion ears that are practically identical to a human ear.
Over a three-month period, these flexible ears… read more
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is using ”selective laser melting” (SLM) to create intricate metal parts for America’s Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket, saving millions in manufacturing costs.
SLM is similar to 3-D printing (additive printing) and is the future of manufacturing, says Ken Cooper, advanced manufacturing team lead at the Marshall Center.
“This machine takes metal powder and uses a high-energy laser to… read more
A new 3D printing process using human stem cells could pave the way to custom replacement organs for patients, eliminating the need for organ donation and immune suppression, and solving the problem of transplant rejection.
The process, developed at Edinburgh-based Heriot-Watt University, in partnership with Roslin Cellab, could also speed up and improve the process of reliable, animal-free drug testing by growing three-dimensional human tissues and structures… read more