TheBolt

We’ve spoken before about 3D printing such as the Epson 3D printer and how the creators of the film ParaNorman used a 3D printer to create models of characters and scenery.

Wired.com recently did a story on Paleoartist Tyler Keillor who has been designing and sculpting realistic clay dinosaur heads for museums and universities.  His next project — an exacting replica of a full Dryptosaurs built entirely as a 3-D digital object.  He created Kickstarter campaign to help buy the tools needed to craft his dinosaur digitally, offering various 12-inch dinosaur models he’s designed as rewards.

Image courtesy of Wired.com

The life-size Dryptosaurus that he’ll make with the additional Kickstarter money, though, will be around 30 feet long, pieced together from CNC routed blocks, the seams sealed and the body painted by Keillor. It will even have a custom made skin to show the dinosaur’s feathered skin.  The wonders of 3D printing are continuing to expand and become even more available to people of all artistic levels.  What would you love to see created with a 3D printer?

I got a text from my friend Crawford the other day and he said, “Check out the ‘OmniTouch’.  The future is here.”  I did and was thoroughly impressed.  If you haven’t’ seen it, Microsoft and XBOX’s partner, Kinect, had researchers combine a Kinect sensor with a projector to expand the possibilities for interactive screens.

A new prototype can transform a notebook into a notebook computer, a wall into an interactive display, and the palm of your hand into a smart phone display. Researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University say their new shoulder-mounted device, called OmniTouch, can turn any nearby surface into an interactive touch screen.

OmniTouch works by bringing together a miniature projector and an infrared depth camera, similar to the kind used in Microsoft’s Kinect game console, to create a shoulder-worn system designed to interface with mobile devices such as smart phones, says co-inventor Chris Harrison, a postgraduate researcher at Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute in Pittsburgh and a former intern at Microsoft Research. Instead of relying on screens, buttons, or keys, the system monitors the user’s environment for any available surfaces and projects an interactive display onto one or more of them.

Very cool, but not entirely futuristic.  I’ll be really impressed when scientists can finally clone dinosaurs.  Then, the future will be NOW.

“You look tasty.”