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3D Printed Planters, Decor and Tape Dispenser by Meow 3D Store on Etsy

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3D Printing.

Britney’s on point: it’s like our childhood dreams of getting anything at the push of a button have come true. Well, if “push of a button” meant lots of programming and waiting for it to print for hours/days. Anyway, here’s our top 5 gadgets that have come out of tech’s newest innovation:

1. Camera Lens

You read that correctly: If you have access to a 3D printer and can sleuth around on the Internet for a lens design, you can print custom camera lenses for your DSLR. We couldn’t picture it at first, either.

2. Acoustic Guitar

Truly want to set yourself apart from the guitar players at parties playing “Wonderwall” over and over? Print yourself an acoustic guitar. Now THAT’S something to sing about.

3. Heels

The struggle to find a perfect pair of heels has always been real. But with 3D printing, you can design and print any pair of shoes you want– Louboutin lookalikes included. 

4. The Self-Watering Plant Container

Always forget to water that Bonsai tree you thought was so hip when you bought it, but realized it requires a ton of work? NOT ANYMORE! This plant will automatically water itself– as long as you remember to refill the water tube once a week.

5. One-Handed Bottle Opener

(まさかの栓抜き！3Dプリンターで作られた置物のようなボトルオープナー | STYLE4 Designから)

ディスプレイ用としてもOKなボトルオープナー。

ただの栓抜きを卓上に置いておくのは気がひけるけど、

これならテーブルに置きっ放しでも嫌じゃない。笑。

継ぎ目もない美しいフォルムは3Dプリンターから作られてるそう。

On The Fly Print

Research from Huaishu Peng and Cornell University is a 3D Printing setup which can make wireframe models as they are designed on a computer:

Currently the 3D digital modeling is primarily an on-screen activity. One has to finish the entire digital design, send it to the printer, and wait for several hours to get the physical output printed. Because the user cannot check the design early on, in many cases, the early printed object is not ideal and need to go through several iterations to end as a polished result.                 Is it possible to create a 3D printing system that can print fast enough to keep up with the CAD modelling speed, so that the CAD users can have a timely, low-fidelity physical preview during the early design stage?                 We propose On-the-Fly Print: a 3D modeling approach that allows the user to design 3D models digitally while having a low-fidelity physical wireframe model printed in parallel. Our system starts printing features as soon as they are created and updates the physical model as needed. Users can quickly check the design in a real usage context by removing the partial physical print from the printer and replacing it afterwards to continue printing.