Monday, February 25, 2013

Making Doodles Come To Life


By Hessa Al Habshi
Photos courtesy of KIckstarter


Just when you think that technology is getting more boring by the year (when apple released the iPhone 5, I thought we’d be getting a hologram keyboard or something of the sort, but I was disappointed to learn that all they’ve actually changed was its thickness and height), then comes these two guys, Peter Dilworth and Maxwell Bogue, with a pen that doodles 3D objects.
That’s something you don’t see every day: a pen that can actually ‘print’ 3D drawings. This little 3Doodler, as it’s called by its producing company WobbleWorks, is described as the world’s first 3D printing pen. It’s kind of like a hot glue gun, since it releases a fine line of filaments, which cools and solidifies into a stable structure.


Now 3D printing is not a very foreign topic to us architecture students. We have a 3D printer in Kuwait University’s College of Architecture, but this is the first handheld version of that machine; and one that costs as little as 75$. You can make basic 3D shapes, or for something a little more exciting, some jewelry or even a mini Eiffel Tower like the one shown below.
WobbleWorks surpassed its initial goal of raising 30,000$ in just a few hours after its project hit Kickstarter; it raised more than three times that amount. Estimated delivery is in October 2013.




But this doesn’t impress me so much, a 3D printer that could supply me with a tasty pizza pie and a side order of french fries however, that will get my praise and support. I think we should get a product like that in the works.

No comments:

Post a Comment