TED TALK: Skylar Tibbits AND The emergence of "4D printing"

3D printing has grown in sophistication since the late 1970s; TED Fellow Skylar Tibbits is shaping the next development, which he calls 4D printing, where the fourth dimension is time. This emerging technology will allow us to print objects that then reshape themselves or self-assemble over time.

Think: a printed cube that folds before your eyes, or a printed pipe able to sense the need to expand or contract.

[via Ted]

Related:

-- A Q&A with Skylar Tibbits on 4D printing at TED2013 (TED Blog)

-- 4D printing: The new frontier (ZDNet)

-- The next big thing: 4D printing (SmartPlanet)

-- 4D printing sees materials form themselves into anything (Wired)

Next, 4-D Printers?

4D Printing: MIT Self-Folding Strand from Skylar Tibbits on Vimeo.

Now that the promise of 3-D printing has landed on the national agenda, researchers want to increase the stakes — with so-called 4-D printing. Bits reports.

Scientists claim that their “fourth dimension” refers to time — as in the space-time continuum described by the mathematician Hermann Minkowski early in the 20th century. The 4-D structures are first generated by 3-D printers but then transform when activated.

“This is a whole new idea of printing, where you don’t just print static objects; you print things that turn into other things,” explained Skylar Tibbits, an M.I.T. researcher who is working on the printer collaboration with Stratasys, an Israeli 3-D printing company. Mr. Tibbits’s research has focused on self-assembly technologies, for things ranging from toys to furniture.

Read more.

7 TED talks on the wonder of 3D printing

In honor of 3D printers here are some TED and TEDx talks on understanding this technology.

Lee Cronin: Print your own medicine. [Video]

In this talk, Lee Cronin shares one application — the idea that, in the future, people could print their medicine. With a custom-built 3D printer and chemical inks, users would download the appropriate molecules to perform “on-the-fly molecular assembly.” Meaning that they could print out whatever medications were needed that day — even if they were for a new superbug.

Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing. [Video]

So what exactly is 3D printing? Lisa Harouni breaks it down — from machine to design to product. Learn how it all works in this talk from TEDSalon London Spring 2011.

Klaus Stadlmann: The world’s smallest 3D printer. [Video]

Klaus Stadlmann built the microprinter, the smallest 3D printer in the world. In this talk from TEDxVienna, he demos this tiny machine that could someday make customized hearing aids — or sculptures smaller than a human hair.

Scott Summit: Beautiful artificial limbs. [Video]

In his work, prosthetics designer Scott Summit noticed that a lot of people had to hack their own artificial limbs — with socks, bubble wrap, even duct tape — to feel comfortable. In this talk from TEDxCambridge, he describes how he turned to 3D printing to create limbs that not only match a person’s body, but their personality as well.

Anthony Atala: Printing a human kidney. [Video]

The shortage of organ donations is a crisis in healthcare. A possible solution? Printable organs. In this stirring talk from TED2011, Anthony Atala describes his research into the development of an organ-printing 3D printer, and introduces a recipient of the product of a similar technology — a bladder grown by borrowed cells.

Marc Goodman: A vision of crimes in the future. [Video]

Marc Goodman draws from his experience in law enforcement to show the dark side of technology — what happens when great tools get into the wrong hands. In his talk, he shows a way 3D printing could be used for harm and cautions us to guard against these potentials.

David F. Flanders: Why I have a 3D printer. [Video]

In this talk from TEDxHamburg, 3D printing guru David F. Flanders discusses the development of the technology and the implications of its mass use, including 3D printers’ role in recovery relief, architecture, and the office supply closet.

3D printer could build a house in 20 hours

Could you really make your own house with a 3D printer in less than 20 hours? Turns out you can, and the technology is now set to be used by NASA for a future Moon colony. Gizmodo reports.

The man behind this ambitious housing project is Professor Behrock Khoshnevis, and he’s disgusted that in the 21st century, the world is still ridden with poverty-stricken slums characterised by make-shift corrugated iron shacks. He wanted to find a way to improve the basic concept of house construction so that it was accessible to everyone, because with better shelter comes a more civilised society.

As far as expenses go, the materials for the 3D printed house are projected to cost 25 per cent less than traditional houses and labour costs can be cut in half. In terms of timing from start to finish, Khoshnevis said that “we anticipate that an average house, like 2500 square foot house, can be built in about 20 hours from a custom design”.

The apparatus, instead of being the size of your typical laser printer, would actually be somewhat bigger than the house according to an article in YahooNews and it would build through a concrete layering system called Contour Crafting.

Watch Professor Behrock Khoshnevis TEDxOjai talk.

Anthony Atala TED talk: Printing a human kidney

Surgeon Anthony Atala demonstrates an early-stage experiment that could someday solve the organ-donor problem: a 3D printer that uses living cells to output a transplantable kidney. Using similar technology, Dr. Atala's young patient Luke Massella received an engineered bladder 10 years ago; we meet him onstage.

[via TED]

TEDxCambridge: Scott Summit: Beautiful artificial limbs

Prosthetics can’t replicate the look and feel of lost limbs but they can carry a lot of personality. At TEDxCambridge, Scott Summit shows 3D-printed, individually designed prosthetic legs that are unabashedly artificial and completely personal -- from macho to fabulous.

Lisa Harouni TED talk: A primer on 3D printing — September 2011

Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing