With 3D Printing, Blind Mom-to-be ‘sees’ baby’s ultrasound for the first time

30-year-old mom Tatiana Guerra, who has been blind since 17, has always depended with others’ vision to describe her unborn baby’s appearance. Thanks to the 3D printing technology, she can now touch her baby’s face based from the ultrasound results.

Tatiana’s doctor surprised her with a 3D printed version of her baby’s ultrasound, making her capable to “see” how her unborn child’s on his 20-week-old state looks like.

Huggies Brazil documented the event and uploaded it in YouTube. Here’s the emotional video:

My initial thoughts on the new AURORA from Eastmachinery

I have to say that i'm extremely impressed with this printer. Its all metal construction is what grabs you once you first look at this unit. Its built strong, powdered coated steel.

There are surprisingly a lot of attention to detail as you will see in the attached photos. It has optical end stops, high quality rails, dedicated PLA blower fan, manual override switches on the front panel for LCD and FAN, SD reader for untethered printing.

Everything is metal - Including the heated BED, and bed support brackets which is a nice change. Even makerbot was plastic!

There are also really neat mechanisms in place to tighten your belts for really nice prints. Simply loosen two screws - pull tight as you can and then do it up again.

The LCD is large and clear - 3" i believe and is beveled nicely into the front panel. To the right of the LCD is an aircraft grade large aluminium knob.

The stepper motors are black so they hide away nicely,

Everything about this printer screams quality. At the US $785.00 price tag, you simply don't expect this level of detail and quality.

If i had to describe this printer to someone, i'd say its as if ultimaker and makerbot had a love child - its got the best of both worlds.

My ONLY complaint so far is that it is a little on the noisy side compared to my v slot extrusion rep-raps - but really thats not a big deal. It appears to be made for commercial/industrial markets which is why the quality is high.

Also the build area is huge! 300x200x200 (12" x 8")

If you're after a printer that is built like a tank, prints super fine details at crazy fast speeds I highly recommend you consider this unit.

So far i'm loving it! I should also mention that it takes GCODE and runs MARLIN unlike some other makerbot style units - so it works out of the box with CURA, SLIC3R and Simplify 3d. I've got this currently wireless using OCTOPRINT. No funky proprietary software lock in here.

What we liked
Fast print times
Large build volume
Heated bed
All metal
Attention to detail

What we didn't like
A little noisy at 75dB

We are grateful to Mr. Martin to share with us the product evaluation, very detailed and professional.

For more information:
http://www.eastmachinery.com/product/9638.html

There are more videos and photos on the way so stay tuned! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_dao-TqEn4

Separating Conjoined Twins with the Help of 3D Printing

Survival rates among conjoined twins are typically low. Separating the few of them that make it is only possible if they are not sharing vital organs, which they both need to survive. This was the situation Elysse Mata’s twin girls, Knatalye Hope and Adeline Faith, were facing. Until they were 10 months old, they were conjoined at the chest and abdomen, which included their chest wall, lungs, pericardial sac, diaphragm, liver, intestines, colon and pelvis.

Surgeons at the Texas Children’s Hospital started planning the highly-complex separation surgery nearly a year in advance. To visualize their intertwined organs, they used Materialise's Mimics Innovation Suite software to design a 3D-printed model based on high-quality CT scans which were designed to generate optimal contrast within the shared organs and the vasculature. Following computerized segmentation of the anatomy, the color-coded output was subsequently exported for 3D Printing and showed in great detail the babies’ heart, lungs, stomachs and kidneys, and where exactly they were connected.

“Having a 3D-printed model gives you an insight into what you’re going to encounter,” Dr. Rajesh Krishnamurthy, chief of radiology research and cardiac imaging at Texas Children’s Hospital, said in a video released by the hospital. “This type of surgical planning becomes very important when you decide to assign an organ to one twin or the other.” The key collaborators in this project were Mr. Nicholas Dodd, an advanced visualization expert at Texas Children’s Hospital, and Dr. Jayanthi Parthasarathy of MedCAD in Dallas, who supervised the 3D printing process.

In addition, the surgeons implanted tissue expanders into their torsos, stretching the skin ahead of the separation. The final surgery, which took nearly 30 hours and involved more than 26 clinicians of 13 different specialties, managed to successfully separate the two babies.

Materialise is unfamiliar with the 3D-printed model used in this case. When evaluating a 3D-printed device which is intended for the use in the diagnosis, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease, where applicable, ensure that the manufacturer is registered or cleared with the FDA for distribution in the United States.

3D Printed Accessories That Fit Your Body and Skin

How well do you know what 3D printing is? And if you know enough, is only theory or you have tried creating anything 3D modelled yourself? Well, for all those who don’t think they are experts and have much to learn, there is some good news coming from a researcher and teacher at the CMU School of Architecture and PhD candidate in Computational Design - Madeline Gannon.

The young scientist believes that no matter how fast the technology is advancing, and no matter how affordable 3D printers have become, there is still a barrier between common users and 3D printers and maybe this is due to their lack of knowledge of creating 3D models themselves.

That’s why Madeline decided to create software that can help the ordinary, common technological user and potential 3D printer owner. Her innovative software called Tactum makes it possible for anyone to learn and easily create unique 3D designs that can be then 3D printed using one’s 3D printer.

What’s easier about this software compared to other user-friendly apps is that it’s more responsive because one can use his hand gestures and thus can poke, rub and manipulate in any other way the image of the future 3D printed artifact.

Madeline wanted to show all users how simple it can be to design 3D objects and that’s why she designed the first series of Tactum objects on a surface that is accessible by anyone freely and where all users can manipulate by instinct - the human body.

Thus, the young researcher aimed to bring the digital out to the physical world and out onto our bodies and, in a way, to make 3D printing, modelling and digital technology closer to our human senses. You can also see how the software works here.

The first designs are fashionable bracelets and collars and with the partnership of Reverb all designs are being translated into printable meshes - a gallery of incredible and unique user designs with smooth landscapes and intricate geometric textures.

However, fashion was not the goal of Madeline and Tactum is actually a very functional software tool. The future of Tactum as its creator sees it is to be used for customization of prosthetics and other wearable medical devices and tools.

Madeline thinks doctors and patients can collaborate and working with Tactum together in real time they can follow how the treatment is going and how well the prosthetics fit or how the body accepts the device. Anything can be adjusted more easily using 3D modelling and 3D printing and the chance for mistakes is smaller. Tactum can make all these devices cheaper, they can be made faster, but what’s more important - they can be better.

Would you 3D Print your Baby?

If you’re a regular reader of my stuff, you know that I’m working on the latest and greatest in 3D printing – Bringing the technology, new machines, new materials and everything else to ASEAN.

While researching my last article, I came across something that I found a little, well… disturbing.

It was about an advancement made in 3D printing, within the medical industry. No, it was not about printing 3D limbs.  Or a new set of teeth. Or a replica heart to practice surgery on… I’m all for that. That is important, even life-saving tech. What caught my eye and almost made me spit out the perfectly good Single Malt I was drinking, was the fact that now mothers-to-be can have a 3D printed copy of their unborn fetus.

Say what!!??

Yes. You read that right. Yet-to-be-born babies can be scanned in utero and printed in the UK.

While some think it’s amazing, miraculous, even, I need to make it clear why this doesn’t sit well with me. Why?

It’s UNNATURAL. And it just ain’t right.

I understand that not everyone will have the same opinion. As usual, I don’t give a damn.

Having a 3D printed model of your baby is not the same as a printed photo of the ultrasound. An ultrasound is a grainy 2D sepia-toned image that you can post on your fridge and send to the grandparents… But this? This is something more sinister.

Some may say that it’s only a natural progression from 2D to 3D. Some might argue that it’s no different from a child having a doll and playing pretend.

I beg to differ.

This is about wanting to have an opinion on a person who doesn’t even exist yet. This is about wanting to know the unknowable… or rather, the “we-shouldn’t-be-able-to-knowable”.

And it ain’t right.

Fer Chrissakes… as we become more dependent on smartphones, GPS technology and IOT to go about our business on a daily basis, and Big Brother has us on camera most hours of the day, the womb might be the only place left to have a little privacy. Now they want to take THAT away too?

And it’s not a doll… a doll is just that – a toy.

A 3D printed model of a tiny person is different. Perhaps it’s the title of that article – “Now You Can Hold Your Baby Before it has Even Been Born” - that makes me cringe on top of everything else, but doesn’t that sound wrong, to you? Being able to hold your baby BEFORE it is born? Eew.

And speaking of children and dolls, what about the older siblings that were born before this tech and don’t have a 3D printed model of themselves? Will this make sibling jealousy worse? “Where’s the model of me, Mummy? Why isn’t there one of me? Do you love me less?” You know exactly what I’m talking about if you have kids.

Or employees.

 Moral & Psychological Issues

And then there are the issues that arise when you think about the common sense questions that nobody wants to ask:

What if it’s ugly? Yeah… what if you think your baby is ugly? How will that make you feel? What if you don’t want to show the print to anyone because you’re ashamed of something that hasn’t even happened yet?

Please.

What if it looks more like an ex-boyfriend… or doesn’t look enough like the father, in his opinion?

Do we really want a spike in paternity tests because of this?

We all hope for the best, but we know that life loves to throw us curveballs. What happens when things don’t go according to plan? What if after printing your baby, you feel that there’s something wrong, maybe something the doctors missed, such as Down’s?  Don’t shake your heads at me, there are several birth-diagnosed DS babies. Or what if you have a stillbirth? Would you still look at that 3D model of what “might have been,” the same way? Will it help the parents heal or will it just be a horrible reminder?

The Narcissism and lack of forethought is ASTONISHING!

Last but not least, I think the level of narcissism of it is what annoys me the most.

Trying to get a few months jump on the “oohs and ahhs” that come with parenthood by parading a 3D Print of your infant in front of friends and family, is a new level of Me-ism that I just can’t accept. Will you print out a teeny-tiny little selfie stick so that your baby can be just like you?

What is the point of printing out your baby?  To ruin the surprise?

To reduce the miracle of life into a novelty?

Nice.

I was the kid who destroyed the house trying to find where my parents hid my Christmas presents, but I gotta tell you… I just don’t understand it.

If I find out you did this, I will mock you publicly and unapologetically.

Because it just ain’t right.

If you stop and think about it, I think you will realize that it’s a dangerous path to be on, and a terrible way to bring a human into the world.

The smallest 3D-printed drill in the world is useless but beautiful

A man has just created the world's smallest 3D-printed working drill and it is perfect.

Lance Abernethy is a maintenance engineer from New Zealand who has an obsession with small things. It was this obsession that led him to create the tiny tool, according to 3D Print.

The maker of small things drew up the plans off his regular-sized drill using CAD software OnShape before using his personal 3D printer, on a very slow speed, to create the miniature design — which measures 17mm tall, 7.5mm wide and 13mm long.

“I wanted to make it as small as possible so I cramped all my parts as tight as possible,” Abernethy told 3D Print. “It took me 3 hours to solder and try and squeeze [the parts] in ... The wires kept breaking off when I was trying to connect them and it was a nightmare trying to hold them in place and try to not short the battery."

The three-piece drill is made up of a hearing aid battery, a headphone cable, a 3D-printed chuck, a small button, a miniature motor and a 0.5mm drill piece. It is covered by two 3D-printed halves. Abernethy said the hardest part was not the printing, but the construction of the tiny delight.

The Food Printer proves 3D printing in cookie dough tastes better than plastic

A 3D printer that layers cookie dough instead of plastic will go on sale in Asia next year and later in the U.S. and Europe pending regulatory approval.

The Food Printer from Taiwan's XYZ Printing will cost around $1,800.

The printer works in a similar way to a traditional printer by layering dough, but what it prints isn't edible. It's printed on a piece of parchment paper and then needs to be baked in an oven before being eaten.

The machine can accommodate up to three tubes of printing product. They can be filled with a cookie dough-like mixture, chocolate or supplies to print a pizza. In that case the tubes would be filled with pizza dough, tomato sauce and cheese sauce.

The unit has about two dozen preset designs, but bakers can add more via a USB port.

The developers are targeting commercial users instead of consumers first and said they need to see where the most demand is.