The Future is Shape-Shifting

Fabian Hemmert demonstrated his awesome shape-shifting cellphone prototype at TEDxBerlin. The first example of "mass" makes so much sense to me.

Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display & Holography

Another amazing technology developed by Shinoda Lab (The University of Tokyo)

Technology from Siggraph '09:


Technology from Siggraph '08:

Link to Research Paper (PDF)
Link to Supplemental Material (PDF)

Photo Illusion- software for creating 3D prints

The following from Photo Illusion's website:
"Paint depth right into a 2D image. Simple depth maps can result in fantastic 3D images. Put on some 3D glasses to view the results of the simple depth map in this example. All layers in Home illusion support their own depth maps so every layered object can have many levels of depth within itself."

"When working in Home Illusion you can wear 3D glasses while painting and see the depth change as you paint. Paint the earth forward and it pops out as you move the brush. Paint space with the far setting and it sinks into the screen right before your eyes. This allows for the artistic creation of 3D in an interactive way."

Link to website
Link to Photo Illusion videos

How sweet it is! It's CandyFAB!

I have been following this project for some time now. It is exciting to see how many people have come together to contribute on this open source project!

Link to website
Link to PDF

With new funding by Caterpillar, robots are closer to building our homes

via 2modern.com
If Behrokh Koshnevis has his way we may soon see the first house entirely constructed by robots. Koshnevis, a professor of engineering at the University of Southern California is revolutionizing the process of CAD/CAM technology, which 'prints' out a computer model as 3-D object using layers of plastic. Kohsnevis' Contour Crafting automated system uses a giant computer-guided nozzle to lay down layers of concrete, while the machine's robotic trowels give the walls shape.

Now Caterpillar, the world's biggest maker of construction equipment, has announced it will fund research of Koshnevis' robotic building machines through a grant to the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. The goal is to build a complete house in just a single day. This not just a way to crank out cheap suburban tract homes-thought that's clearly on the minds of executives at Caterpillar. Koshnevis makes the case that this technology could provide affordable housing for millions in poverty or for those who find themselves victims of a natural disaster.

The idea of a robotic building machine sounds like a nightmare for architects, but the invention of any new technology has always been met with trepidation, not to mention howls of derision. Painters swore photography meant the end of painting. Instead, artists started using cameras in unorthodox ways and painters felt free to push the medium far beyond the need to be representational. There is no doubt architects will find ways to creatively engage the robot builders of the future. The fate of human construction workers may not be so bright.

link to video of actual machine

link to Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies (CRAFT)

Sketch Furniture by FRONT

Not sure how comfortable this would be, but conceptually an awesome concept in designing straight from the fluid imagination.

excerpt from Front's website:

Is it possible to let a first sketch become an object, to design directly onto space?

The four FRONT members have developed a method to materialise free hand sketches. They make it possible by using a unique method where two advanced techniques are combined.
Pen strokes made in the air are recorded with Motion Capture and become 3D digital files; these are then materialised through Rapid Prototyping into real pieces of furniture.

Rising Demand for 3D in Theatres

(story copied from Engadget.com)
Digital Cinema Implementation Partners (DCIP) -- representing AMC, Cinemark and Regal Cinemas -- has worked out a deal to finance the installation of thousands of digital movie screens starting next year in the U.S. with the help of Lion's Gate, Paramount, Fox, Universal and Disney. Not participating, at least for now, are Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures, with the latter expected to announce a separate deal soon involving the installation of Sony 4K SXRD projectors around the world. Key to the deal? "Virtual print" fees, meant to help defray the expect $70,000 cost to switch to 3D-ready digital projection setups, as the studios will kick in the $800 - $1000 they would have spent on old school movie prints to finance the changeover. In the future they save by distributing only digital prints, not to mention having somewhere to show the dozen 3D flicks expected to debut next year. Both sides are betting the $1 billion package will help pull us away from the HDTVs and back into a movie theater, but until they work out a payoff with that one guy who won't stop talking, we're not sure how likely that is.

Read - Wall Street Journal
Read - Reuters
Read - Variety
Link to article in Engadget