I sat on a 3D-printed bench.
Jeffrey Martin, panoramic photographer and founder of photography site 360Cities, just created the world's largest photo of Tokyo. The image 600,000 pixels wide, and it's a composite made from over 8000 photos. It took Jeffery two days to capture the entire scene from the Tokyo Tower's lower observatory roof using a Canon 7D DSLR and 400mm lens mounted on a Clauss Rodeon gigapixel robot.
We've seen some pretty big things come out of 3D printing projects. An oversized iPhone case! A 3D-printed hexacopter! Even a room-sized urn! But a full-sized 3D-printed replica of a car just seems ludicrous.
Three college students from Griffith University in Australia have created an autonomous vehicle using just a smartphone and a toy Power Wheels car. This self-driving car navigates its way around by plotting a GPS course on the smartphone. Meanwhile, it uses a connected camera sensor to see where the road lanes are, and to spot any other hazards on the traffic-laden streets. This one smartphone system also controls all of the car's steering and acceleration.
If you've ever felt a 3D-printed object? They're typically made of hard, brittle plastic, and tend to be delecate. Now Shapeways is introducing a new, squishy 3D printing material called Elasto Plastic that's more like a soft, pliable piece of rubber than stiff ABS plastic.
The idea of applying a regular computer chip directly to your brain is silly, so scientists at Japan's Yokohama National University have created a new material that can be shaped into complex, conductive microscopic 3D structures. What does that mean? It could potentially lead to custom brain electrodes.