NextFab Studio Blog

Weekly Staff Links, February 5th

gregghigham — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:09:00 -0500

February 5 Links

The Creators Project Interactive still-lifes (lives?). - Brandon

SolidSmack Gear Generator “The Gear template generator from woodgears.ca is a magical web-based tool (probably) using little wooden mathematical gears on the back end to output a 2D downloadable file, that you can also print, slap on a piece of cardboard, plywood, acrylic or other material and cut out.” - Alex

Dirty Money from Slate An interesting perspective on how the US and other countries can reduce our need for fossil fuels through better policy. - Seth

Math House This playground would make any kid get excited about math! Hidden in the suburbs of Charlotte, NC, Bob Sebrosky has been building a mathematical wonderland in his backyard for the past 10 years. Awesome. - Christine

The Edge Factor Show It’s a design contest for mechanical engineering and design students - $40,000 in cash prizes plus winner is featured in 3D HD video program. - Evan

Weekly Staff Links, January 29th

gregghigham — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:16:00 -0500

We have some cool links for you this week. Art and Science coming together to improve the artistic experience. Technology that points the way to the future. Technology that connects computers to the physical world. Science that help artists make their art. Please enjoy!

Soft Circuit Roundup Neat collection of soft circuit projects. - Christine

iOS Communicating with Arduino The iOS-Arduino connectivity kit and a video of what can be done with it, such as reading sensors with the Arduino and communicating the readings to iOS devices. - Gregg

ARS Electronica | Prix ARS Electronica The ARS Electronica international digital culture competition which “discovered” Pixar, Wikipedia, and Wikileaks, is accepting submissions through March 2^nd. Categories include music, animation, interactive art and big ideas; check out last year’s winners. - Evan

Samsung’s Transparent Smart Window at CES 2012 Samsung Smart Widow Display. - Adam

Color Dial Spray by Kim Young-suk, Kim Woo-sik, Oh Jin-ho and Lee Young » Yanko Design You read it correctly; CMYK you-dial-it spray cans in which you select the color that the can sprays! - Brandon

Weekly Staff Picks, January 22, 2012

gregghigham — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 08:15:00 -0500

January 22

We have some really interesting links for you today from Technological and scientific fields and artistic endeavors and some from multiple areas. We hope you enjoy them on this cold Sunday in Philadelphia.

HAPTIC INTELLIGENTSIA A project that mixed a human element with 3D printing technology. They use haptic feedback to tell the human user when to extrude material from a glue gun. The end result is a human’s interpretation of the original design. - Alex

Transparent Aluminum? Not quite, but almost. A classic clip from Star Trek IV (predicting the future?) and a discussion of transparent aluminum: aluminum oxynitride or AION. - Gregg

Incredible sewn art. - Brandon

A 3D printable Zoetrope. You’ll have to click the link to find out! - Alex

A video projector for smart phones The size that this is packed into is amazing. - Brandon

Weekly Staff Picks, January 15, 2012

gregghigham — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 10:57:00 -0500

Check out how Arduino is made! Photos and videos from a tour of the Arduino factory in Torino, Italy. - Christine

IEEE’s The story of Arduino It compliments the link above. - Gregg

3D Japanese Artwork Amazing Japanese artist who paints goldfish in resin the same way a 3D printer builds a part up layer by layer. - Alex

Scott Young’s Computer Science Blog “Over the next 12 months, I’m going to learn the entire 4-year MIT curriculum for computer science, without taking any classes. I’ve always wanted to speak that language. But, I didn’t want to invest four years of my life and hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn it. I want to show that learning doesn’t require acceptance boards and SAT tests, thousands of dollars in debt, or even the 4-year pace most students assume is necessary to learn a subject.

Will I fail? It’s definitely a possibility. I’m attempting to learn the same material at 4 times the speed without the benefit of instructors. I’ll also post any failures, so you can be sure I’m not omitting my mistakes.” - Alex

Diagnostic Contact Lens This one is pretty cool; a contact lens that monitors blood sugar levels. - Gregg

Weekly Staff Picks, January 8, 2011

gregghigham — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 09:38:00 -0500

It’s been a little while since we posted our weekly links due the the holidays. We have a collection of links for you today that span technology and art and some that combine both. Please enjoy!

lighting bag by Wonsik Chae. - Brandon

The art and Science of CNC Waterjet and Laser Cutting Major custom metalwork company in Brooklyn does some beautiful laser cutting, water-jet cutting, and bending for architecture, art, and interiors. Check out their videos too. - Evan

Laser cut artwork + bicycles + cameras = awesome
“If attached to a bike wheel and filmed in motion this intricate paper cutout will animate to create lovely fluid movements; cogs turning and clouds growing and the like…I intend for these to be presented as art objects as in the pictures. I must stress, as I have many times with this project, this is about animation. It is not possible to see this with the naked eye. If you stick this on your bike you will not be able to see it unless you are filming it, I will include instructions on how to film it but I really see these more as pieces of art. - Alex

Self healing circuitry? Has any one seen our T-1000 around? - Gregg

Paper Powered Batteries Students-destroy your failed assessments and cool down your beer at the same time! - Matt

Wearable iPod Interface Apple may be working on a wearable iPod with Siri. - Gregg

"The Helm"

brandon-nfs — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:19:41 -0500

I took on a challenge to create a pirate ship steering wheel. I wanted to give land lovers the powerful feeling of a captain steering their ship. Though this project is ongoing and ever changing, “The Helm” has been installed twice, each time adding additional pieces to further push the illusion of steering a ship on land.

The next step for “The Helm” will be to create bone structures (carved out of foam) to fill in the rectangular wooden ligatures. “The Helm” also has slots to insert lights to encourage people walking by to play with it.

I designed the wheel in Rhino and then brought the design to the ShopBot CNC Router. The base of the wheel was layered with different patterns to allow knobs to be lamented in. The knobs were also created by laminating wood together and milling them out on the ShopBot. The base of “The Helm” was designed to look as if it were the deck of a pirate ship. I made sure that the base had enough structural integrity to allow people to stand on it and also hold the wheel’s weight. The wheel is attached to the vertical bracing of the deck with two block pillows. A 1” steel rod, held on by shaft collars extends through “The Helm” and both block pillows.

-Brandon

Hive 76/NextFab Collider

christine-nfs — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:59:48 -0500

We had a great time Tuesday night with our members and fellow maker group Hive 76 members!

We kicked off the 5-hour make session with food, introductions, and some brainstorming for collaborative projects that we were excited about completing during the event.

Hive76 members got some demos on our machines such as our Trotec laser cutters, Roland CNC mill, and our Brother Digital Embroidery machine. Snowflakes generated from evilmadscientist were laser cut and engraved with a holiday-themed message from Hive76 and NextFab Studio. Some were wired with LEDs in our electronics lab.

As projects were being discussed, we gave demos on our PCB fabrication process, soft switch construction, and brass CNC engraving. One of our members and a Hive76 member had an idea for a “chair jousting” target apparatus (yes, it is exactly how it sounds), and make it, we did.

Thank you to all of our members who came in and to Hive76 for a great night of making and mingling!

Also, thank you to musician Jack Myers (http://www.myspace.com/jackmyersmusic) who played live music for the event.

Hope to see you all again soon!

Happy Holidays!

Weekly Staff Picks, December 18, 2011

gregghigham — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 10:28:02 -0500

Here our staff picks. We have some really interesting links for you this week. One is even art from a scientist.

Leahy-Smith America Invents Act on Wikipedia America Invents Act summary on Wikipedia - a must read for anyone interested in inventing, patenting, or using inventions. - Evan

Engadget & Stratolaunch.com Paul Allen is backing another space vehicle launch system with Scaled Composites. - Gregg

MIT News A one trillionth of a second shutter speed camera to photograph individual photons from a laser beam. - Gregg

How to Start the First Night of Hanukkah This is from 2010, but still relevant today. - Anon

Flight Opportunities Working on technology that’s beyond this world? NASA is now providing opportunities for you to get it tested! - Evan

Stratasys video about animations using the Stratasys 3D printers. - Brandon

Jon Hiller works with “digital materials” - writing software and making 3D printers that can build shapes out of discrete bits (small spheres), but he’s also a great guitarist and has made carbon fiber acoustic guitars. - Evan

Weekly Staff Picks, December 11, 2011

gregghigham — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 13:26:00 -0500

Here are our staff favorite links from this week. Once again we have articles from art and science sources. We hope you enjoy them.

Solidsmack Little robot figurines printed on Z-Corp printers. The coolest part is the Web interface they have for building and customizing your own robot. - Alex

Endless Forms allows you to design shapes using artificial evolution. The shapes are supposedly 3d printable from a downloaded file. Note that the display works best with WebGL installed. Try using the Google Chrome browser. - Evan

Miniature V12 engine at MAKEzine.com and nerdstink.com This is the smallest working V12 engine in the world according to this article. Very cool video shows the engine being assembled and then running. - Gregg

toxel.com Very interesting skateboard art made from the laminated fragments of skateboard decks. - Brandon

Spray On Fabric Think of the possibilities. (Looks a bit like Tyvec to me. - ed.) - Brandon

Weekly Staff Picks, December 4, 2011

gregghigham — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 13:15:19 -0500

Here are our staff’s pick for this week. Science, art, and technology are represented by these links. The videos for the last 4 links are very interesting. Please enjoy!

The Material Connexion This is a database of innovative and sustainable materials. Very cool. - Christine

Audi quattro This is a great video about Audi’s quattro all wheel drive system. (Subaru pays Audi a licensing fee for ever all wheel drive Subaru they sell.) - Adam

Invisibility cloak that uses the scientific principles of mirages to work. - Brandon

The art of Japanese Sword making still exists in Japan. The video shows sword smithing and discuses the cultural importance of the art. - Gregg

The Bicycle Wheel Animation This is really neat. The video shows this art form much better than it can be described by words. - Yulia

Check out this great project. Follow their updates on twitter,...

yulia-nfs — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:29:00 -0500

Check out this great project. Follow their updates on twitter, facebook and tumblr!

The Space Savers Project is a citywide public arts project, inspired by the Philadelphia custom of “saving” on-street parking. Saving public parking spaces, while technically illegal, is widely practiced throughout the city. Items like recycling bins, upturned garbage cans, cinder blocks and broken furniture are traditionally used as space savers. While the objects effectively “save” spaces, they can be visually crude and imply threat/ possession. We called on artists to design and create alternatives to the objects traditionally used to save spaces. This is public art project as well as an environmental and social experiment. We wanted to re-imagine what space saving in the city can look like. We wondered: Can a change in the aesthetics change the message of space saving? Or is the act of space saving immutable? Perhaps by replacing traditional space savers with art, we can transform the practice of saving spaces and begin new community dialogues.

Is saving a parking space with a work of art different than saving one with a cinder block tethered to a street sign? The Space Savers Project may reveal an answer.

The creative goals for The Space Savers Project are:

· To re-imagine a Philadelphia custom;

· To transform environments and social customs;

· To engage viewers outside of traditional gallery spaces.

Contact: thespacesaversproject@gmail.com

The Space Savers Project is supported by Breadboard and Temple Gallery. The Project responds to the Vision Plan of the City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, which encourages more temporary public art programming in Philadelphia including projects that utilize temporary public art to illuminate or address critical civic issues and promote civic engagement and dialogue.

Weekly Staff Picks, November 27, 2011

gregghigham — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 14:45:00 -0500

Here are this week’s picks. You could probably spend weeks just on the Science Hobbyist page!

jbaredesign 3D printed coffee cup with an eye-catching design. More interesting is seeing the original concept here and the refinement that took place before the final design was printed. - Alex

Spooky sci-fi sounds as giant Theramin lands in Melbourne A giant Theramin has appeared in Melbourne! A Theramin is a musical instrument that uses no direct contact, just magnetic fields to produce sounds such as those in 1950’s sci-fi movies. Think “Forbidden Planet”. - Gregg

Time lapse video of a Photoshop image being created. The power of Photoshop demonstrated by a true expert in the software. This is what all Adobe Photoshop users should aspire towards. I hope I can come close to half as good as this guy is. - Ross

Science Hobbyist A trove of ideas for inventors and innovators- thought experiments and attempts to conceive of scientifically plausible explanations for rare (and possibly non-existent) phenomena (like force fields, ball lightening, etc). These are the sorts of ideas that could spawn awesome inventions and many are relatively simple experiments to try. Check out the author’s ABOUT ME. Thanks Bill Beaty! - Evan

Festively Rendered Snowman from Tweets Engineered Exactly 3d printed Twitter snowmen. Aren’t they cool? Maybe it is time to order one and get it delivered in time for Christmas! - Yulia

Bionic Contact Lenses with Heads Up Display Contact lenses that can project images in front of your eyes, there are plans for email applications. Its silly that they tested them on rabbits though, rabbits can’t use computers. - Matt

E-Textiles Workshop

christine-nfs — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:46:47 -0500

We live in a world where you can order groceries to your doorstep, know what your friend in Taiwan is up to… and wear your electronics!

Want to learn about the world of e-textiles and start your own high-tech wardrobe?

Inspired by Leah Buechley, inventor of the Lilypad Arduino and director of MIT’s High-Low Tech research group, we are hosting a 2-day workshop that will teach you everything you need to know in order to make your own wearable electronics!

Day One, 12/10, 1:00PM - 5:00PM: We will learn about e-textiles materials and methods including: soft circuits, power, voltage, resistance, hand-sewing vs. machine sewing, conductive fabric, conductive thread, sewing LEDs, switches, sensors, plus examples of what you can do with these tools!

Day Two, 12/11, 1:00PM - 5:00PM: We will start with an intro to programming with Lilypad Arduino, and then we will work on individual projects.

Find out more information and register here: E-Textiles 101.

Steve Jobs Patents Exhibit by the Patent Office

gregghigham — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 10:26:22 -0500

The US Patent and Trademark Office has openned an exhibit show some of Steve Jobs over 300 patents. Using the iPhone as a design element, the Patent Office is showcasing the ideas of Jobs in the atrium of their office in Alexandria, VA.

Weekly Staff Picks, November 20, 2011

yulia-nfs — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:57:07 -0500

Here are the links for this week. Some trendy items, plus the article mentioning us. We hope you enjoy them.

Group Think: Models of Collaborative Consumption Catch on in Philly - Although we did our best to tell the world about it, it is worth putting it in here too. We are very proud to be mentioned in this article. - Yulia

Sephora Presents nails inc. Magnetic Polish Magnets used in nail polish! See the amazing effect and think how technology meets fashion - WanTing

The Toaster Project Cool project/book by a designer who decided he wanted to make a toaster (from scratch) himself. The end result may not be a fully functional toaster, but the project makes you appreciate how many processes (and materials) go into even a $10 toaster. - Alex

Trendy Slave New inspiration blog featuring works of art in multiple forms, with a range from artistic trends, urban culture, products, tangible and digital arts and more! - Christine

Joris Laarman, Experimental Dutch designer was recently named an Innovator of the Year for 2011 by the Wall Street Journal. Among his current and future projects: a lamp powered by hamster cells, voxel furniture assembled from cubes glued together by a robot, furniture inspired by bone growth and the flocking of birds, and an online digital fabrication network called “MakeMe” - “like iTunes for manufacturing products.” - Evan

Rijksmuseum falls for young designer I’ve seen a lot of this stuff before from other innovators (Shapeways, Thingiverse, Assa Ashuach) - but what do you think - is Laarman doing a better job designing and executing, or getting undeserved attention? - Evan

Touchscreen-ready Gloves!

christine-nfs — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:28:00 -0500

Want to use your touchscreen toy outside in the cold without having to defrost your fingers later? Here’s a quick fix for your favorite pair of gloves!

I added a small bit of conductive thread to the fingertips of my gloves. It’s very easy and it works!

Now I can snap a picture, check my e-mail, text, and change the song when I’m outdoors, without my hands freezing!

Stop by and make some for yourself!

Weekly Staff Picks, November 13, 2011

gregghigham — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 11:40:00 -0500

Here are this week’s Staff Picks. We hope you enjoy them.

Rapid Manufacturing Not everyone has access to a Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) machine (a type of 3D printer that uses a laser to melt plastic or metal powder to create a solid 3D object), but if you do, here is a guide published by 3D Systems (inventors and pioneers of SLS and Stereolithography [SLA]) on “Design for SLS” - basically how to design to take advantage of the capabilities of SLS relative to traditional processes (machining or molding). Offers great Design for Manufacturability (DFM) guidance that is applicable (with a grain of salt) to other additive processes. - Evan

Plastic Bottle House What really surprised me and made me want to share this is the fact that “Compacted sand inside a bottle is nearly 20 times stronger than bricks.” Maybe we should start saving our bottles at NextFab instead of recycling them… - Matt

Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation Interesting talk in the theme of TED about motivation and incentives. Science knows one thing and businesses do another and that’s not good. - Ross

MIT Leg Lab is still some of the most awesome robotics work I’ve ever seen - check out the “Planar Biped” doing a running forward flip! - Evan

NextFab staff members Carter and Matt indulged in the artistic...

matthew-nfs — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:25:21 -0500

NextFab staff members Carter and Matt indulged in the artistic side of Philadelphia last night, attending P.POD’s opening party at the art museum. P.POD, or “Philadelphia Produces Original Design,” shows off and even sells a collection of unique, often useful items made right here in Philadelphia! The motorcycle pictured above is Hammerhead Industries’ newest model on its world premiere, and is the centerpiece of the exhibit. Carter and Matt were able to meet P.POD’s creator, author/illustrator Alex Stadler, who was a lot friendlier than you’d expect a famous artist to be. Stop by the Philadelphia Museum of Art gift shop before the new year if you want to see some great, Philadelphia-produced art!

Weekly Staff Picks, November 6, 2011

gregghigham — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 11:11:36 -0500

Here are our Staff’s prime picks for this week. These range from intelligent prosthetics to not being able to believe what you see. Please enjoy.

iWalk Cutting edge prosthetic leg company founded by double amputee and MIT professor, Dr. Hugh Herr, who lost both legs to frostbite in a mountaineering accident. Still an active climber, Dr Herr related how with certain customized limbs, he has been able to climb better than a 100% natural human. - Evan

Zen and the Art of Making This is a great newsletter post from MAKE: Magazine about the journey from beginner to expert maker. - Gregg

Pantorouter This is about 3D Routing the hard way, without CNC. - Carter

Rendering Synthetic Objects into Legacy Photographs on Vimeo Cool video showing a software interface which allows for 3D objects to be inserted into 2D pictures with realistic lighting and other effects. “A method to realistically insert synthetic objects into existing photographs without requiring access to the scene or any additional scene measurements.” There is also an interview with Kevin Karsch, who is the guy responsible for it. - Alex

Shelley Spector's Digital Embroidery Workshop

christine-nfs — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:01:00 -0400

This past Saturday we held a digital embroidery workshop run by Breadboard resident artist Shelley Spector. Even with the slushy, snowy, winter-in-October weather, we had a brave bunch of souls show up for a more intimate, in-depth, workshop. Attendees learned about the basics of digital embroidery and a bit of laser cutting, and were able to take home what they made with us!

They were first introduced to digital embroidery through a show & tell discussion with pieces Shelley has been working on here.

Then, Shelley dove into some of the details of the embroidery software we have and how to create digital stitch data using it.

Shelley prepared a piece for workshop attendees to make and take home she calls “Gone Watch.”

After looking at samples and learning about how the software works, Shelley continued with how to hoop fabric for embroidery.

Everyone chose their own colors for fabric, thread, material for the watch faces and then took turns hooping the fabric, embroidering the watch bands, and laser cutting the watch faces!

When the band was cut out around the edges and the face laser cut, they were ready to be put together!

Everyone left with their own personalized “Gone Watch” that they made.

Check out our flickr to see more pictures from the workshop!

Thank you to Shelley Spector for putting this together and to everyone who came! If you missed it, don’t worry; we may have another workshop sometime soon, and our regular digital embroidery classes are being offered frequently. Sign up here!