Must-See Video: Disney Research Presents Optically-Enabled 3D-Printed Interactive Objects
Posted in: Digital Fabrication
All images via Disney Research
Speaking of 3D printing, this is pretty amazing: a team of designers and engineers at Disney Research have recently published a remarkable paper entitled “Printed Optics: 3D Printing of Embedded Optical Elements for Interactive Devices.” (Just as their amusement parks are located in the family-friendly tourist destinations of Florida and Southern California, the entertainment company’s research division is strategically located in close proximity to Carnegie Mellon University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich.) Karl D.D. Willis, Eric Brockmeyer, Scott Hudson and Ivan Poupyrev are based in the Pittsburgh lab, and the highly technical 10-page paper [PDF] is as dense as one might expect. From the Printed Optics project page:
Printed Optics is a new approach to creating custom optical elements for interactive devices using 3D printing. Printed Optics enable sensing, display, and illumination elements to be directly embedded in the body of an interactive device. Using these elements, unique display surfaces, novel illumination techniques, custom optical sensors, and robust embedded components can be digitally fabricated for rapid, high fidelity, customized interactive devices.
Printed Optics is part of our long term vision for the production of interactive devices that are 3D printed in their entirety. Future devices will be fabricated on demand with user-specific form and functionality. Printed Optics explores the possibilities for this vision afforded by today’s 3D printing technology.
“A 3D printed mobile projector accessory with embedded light pipes. Projected imagery is mapped onto the character’s eyes. The character responds to user interaction such as sound or physical movement.”
For those of us who don’t know DSM Somos’ Watershed XC11122 from 3D Systems’ Accura ClearVue, they’ve produced a brilliant, semi-viral video for our edification:
Besides the interactive applications of 3D printed optics, the Disney Researchers have also developed a handful of lightbulbs, an easy metaphor for their insight.
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