As previously mentioned, I recently had a some dental issues and learned how to view a CT Scan in 3D using Linux. At a hackathon last week, my friend Sidd brought along a 3D printer. How hard is it to convert a CT scan to a file suitable for printing? Slightly trickier than I expected! Most of the guides I found were outdated, or the software didn't work on Linux, or the instructions assumed a level of expertise that I just didn't possess. So here's my simple guide to getting it working. I…
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Twitter can be amazing sometimes... I was reading about "L'Inconnue de la Seine". The face of a young woman found drowned in the river Seine in the 1800s. Her death mask was enormously popular - with copies of it appearing all over the world. Her smile was compared to the Mona Lisa and her face decorated the popular salons of the day. Her death mask was even the basis for the first "CPR Doll". Her death has helped save more lives than anyone can possibly count. There are thousands of…
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Hannah works for Eagle Labs, where she 3D prints things and builds IoT lamps. 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. …
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Last week I was invited to attend a product launch by BQ. They're a small company based out of Spain who create some curiously innovative products - including smartphones which natively run Cyanogen. I'm particularly looking forward to reviewing their Ubuntu Tablet later in the year. The thing which really caught my eye was Zowi (pronounced Zoë). It looks like this: And it dances like this: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/zowi.mp4 Ok, but what is it? Here's what you …
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Rewired State have just announced "End Of The World Hack" We know the earth is about to be bombarded with solar flares and magnetic storms of varying ferocity on July 4th, 5th and 6th 2014, by which time the infrastructure of the energy and communications networks will have been completely decimated across the entire planet. You have 48 hours to best prepare the human race for survival, through the chaos, and on to a successful future. After which time there will be no electricity and no…
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This is a necropost - resurrected from the now defunct blog of a previous employer. We had an amazing time at Over The Air 2013. We’ve teamed up with ThingMaker to digitally scan attendees. Our long term aim is to release on GitHub a collection of faces which artists and game designers can re-use. The definite highlight was scanning Annie, one of the veterans of Bletchley Park. Our thanks also to Faberdashery who were able to supply us with filament for the 3D printer in exactly the r…
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Perhaps the most legendary piece of plastic in the hacker community is the humble "Cap'n Crunch" whistle. The free-in-cereal whistle was able to emit a piercing shriek at 2600Hz - the exact tone required to unlock the US phone network. So, because it's all I seem to do these days, I turned my my trusty RepRapPro and decided to see whether it was possible to 3D print a whistle which could produce the same frequency. I found a customisable whistle on Thingiverse and customised it to include…
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I was wandering round The Henry Moore Foundation last Friday - thanks to the delightful wedding of my good friends Mike and Nikki. Looking at the abstract statues and carvings, I was struck not only by their beauty, but by how easy they would be to reproduce with a 3D printer. Ok - ok! I'm a little obsessed since building a RepRapPro for work - but hear me out. Wikipedia has been collecting high-resolution scans of famous works of art - although not without controversy - and providing them…
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Earlier this week I tried my hand at printing fossils. The print didn't perfectly, but it was quite encouraging. Museum Victoria - an Australian institution - has released a 3D scanned trilobite on Thingiverse. I trimmed the model - to make the bed shallower and the sides neater - and hit print. I'm pretty impressed with the results: My remixed model is also available on Thingiverse if you'd like to have a go at printing your very own fossil. I'm impressed with the fidelity of the …
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I've just discovered the amazing 3D Fossils site of the British Geological Survey. The GB3D Type Fossils Online project, funded by JISC, aims to develop a single database of the type specimens, held in British collections, of macrofossil species and subspecies found in the UK, including links to photographs (including 'anaglyph' stereo pairs) and a selection of 3D digital models. What that means is that they have thousands of British fossils available as freely downloadable 3D models! Even …
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It goes without saying that counterfeiting coins is illegal. Sir Isaac Newton when he was Master of the Mint, had people hanged or tortured for illegally producing coins. So, don't do it, ok! That said, coins are very useful as calibrators for 3D printers. They come in various shapes, sizes, and thickness. More importantly, it's really easy to compare a 3D printed coin with one in your pocket. Or, even, just by looking at them. I've spent the last few days creating a basic set of 3D…
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