The Next Frontier in Piracy: 3D Printing

Article from: time.com
Image: Getty

Exciting times, friends. While we’ve been cleaning up the proverbial ticker tape left behind by jubilant celebration over the recently-stalled antipiracy bills, the Pirate Bay – arguably the premier resource for pirating digital content – has already moved on to the next big thing.

The site has announced a new category called “Physibles” that houses digital files that can be downloaded and used in conjunction with 3D printers to print out actual, physical objects:

We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical. We believe that things like three dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby future you will print your spare parts for your vehicles. You will download your sneakers within 20 years.

As of right now, the Physibles section of the Pirate Bay has only a few odds and ends – a 3D model of a camera lens, a model 1970 Chevelle hot rod and a whistle, to name a few – but as the prices of 3D printers continue to fall and people one day get used to the idea of, say, purchasing an otherwise tangible product from Amazon and then printing that object out themselves, you can see where a site like the Pirate Bay could really start to ruffle some retail feathers.

(MORE: Check out a video of 3D printing in action)

The site spins the announcement with a more humanitarian outlook, however:

The benefit to society is huge. No more shipping huge amounts of products around the world. No more shipping the broken products back. No more child labour. We’ll be able to print food for hungry people. We’ll be able to share not only a recipe, but the full meal.

Such a future is still several, if not tens, of years off, but the ability to print relatively simple objects (even food) is already here and will continue to get more refined over time. Even questions about intellectual property as it pertains to 3D printing have already been raised.

You may recall last year that Shapeways.com, a site that lets users share 3D printer files with one another, found itself associated with a legal scuffle between one of its users and Paramount Pictures. The user had apparently recreated a prop from Paramount’s movie Super 8 and, according to Paramount, was offering to sell 3D printouts of it.

Now imagine a day when everyone has a 3D printer at home. We’ll surely be able to purchase 3D printer files from people and companies far more adept at creating models of printable objects than we are, and assuming these files will be relatively easy to duplicate due to their digital nature, we’re bound to witness plenty of litigation over what’s legal to copy and what’s not.

As Shapeways points out when commenting on the Pirate Bay news, “Being able to download product files is not new, Shapeways has had downloadable models for years, as has Thingiverse and Google Warehouse, but let’s see how this affects the 3D printing IP debate. “

(MORE: Roll Over, Movie Bootleggers: It’s All About 3D Prop Printing Now)

Read more: http://techland.time.com/2012/01/24/next-frontier-in-piracy-downloading-physical-objects-to-your-3d-printer/#ixzz1l23QsshT

3D Printing allows parents to hold a life-size model of their unborn child

From: 

DAILY MAIL REPORTER 2:12 PM on 26th June 2009

It's a defining moment in a parent's life: Seeing their unborn child's image on an ultrasound for the first time. Now pregnant women could have the chance to hold a life-size model of their unborn baby.

The startling new medical technology is the result of a Royal College of Art design student's PhD.

Your baby at 12 weeks old: A life-size model of a foetus created using imaging from an ultrasound scan

A 32-week-old foetus is modelled from scanned images

Brazilian student Jorge Lopes has pioneered the conversion of data from ultrasound and MRI scans into life-size plaster models of living embryos using a method called rapid prototyping.

'It’s amazing to see the faces of the mothers. They can see the full scale of their baby, really understand the size of it,' said Dr Lopes.

'The technology can be also be used as an emotional tool for parents whose foetus might be deformed or need treatment,' added Hilary French, who heads the School of Architecture and Design Products.

A good way of understanding how rapid protoyping works is to imagine a printer that prints plastic powder instead of ink.

Then as it prints layer up layer it slowly builds up a 3D model.

Aine Duffy from the RCA said: 'It's stunning technology - here at the RCA we use it for everything from newmedical devices, to car components, to jewellery, to architectural models.'

A foetus at 21 weeks

And a foetus at 18 weeks

Dr Lopes' workwill be displayed at an exhibition opening at the RCA in London today. The technology is currently being trialled at a clinic in Rio de Janeiro.

His supervisor, King's College head of obstetrics Stuart Campbell, called the invention 'absolutely unique' and 'a fantastic development'.

Professor Campbell, who pioneered the use of ultrasound in the 1980s, also hoped the technology would help mothers - blind mothers in particular - to bond with their babies.

'I don’t know whether I am looking at science or I am looking at art', commented an external examiner reviewing the student's PhD viva.

Dr Lopes also modelled conjoined twins, above, and separated twins, below, from a CT scan and MRI

Dr Lopes, who is sponsored at the college by the Brazilian government, had begun his research by looking at how model-making had been used in practical ways over the centuries, Ms French said.

He started with mummies, then moved on to dinosaurs, then foetuses - leaving friends joking he had gone from 'mummies to mummys'.

His work uses the latest computer techniques first exhibited by Ron Arad at an exhibition at the V&A at the turn of the century entitled Not Made By Hand, Not Made in China.

Arad, one of the most famous designers in the world and the head of design products at the RCA, called Dr Lopes' work a 'ground-breaking new field of world importance'.

Gentle Giant ZBrush Rapid Prototyping

I post this video again as the old link is dead and I love what the guys at Gentle Giant are doing...