On Tue, Mar 6, 2018 at 11:43 AM, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Dave McGuire did not post about "incredible things" made, but in fact CREDIBLE things - like that finger splint. He could have used popsickle sticks and string; but his local printer + thingiverse design = useful widget. (shrug) 3D printers may simply become like waffle irons and pancake mix: something you do when needed and ignored soon after. Of course they could do more; like icecream cones. ;)
I don't see how posting about incredible points of fact is useless/impractical versus credible, perhaps you meant being ambitious vs. practical. Because I think it serves to enlighten people about the state of technology available today. At work, where we develop end-to-end motion control systems, one of our many fields involves additive manufacturing, eg. 3D Printing. While Makerbot was hitting the consumer market with their initial foray into 3D printing with their Cupcake 3D Printer over 6 yrs ago, and the open-source 3D Printing group called Rep-Rap was still in it's infancy, we were delivering system capable of printing with biological tissue on the cellular level. Our client was a medical researcher out of Harvard developing 3D Printed Human organs. This includes a complete selection of tissue membranes and vascular structure. And human trials were already successful for the human bladder, and next up are kidneys. You can find his presentation on Ted Talk. This work has already spawned several companies into expanding organ transplants. I'm hoping I can get an employee discount ! Dan -- _ ____ / \__/ Scotty, We Need More Power !! \_/ _\__ Aye, Cap'n, but we've only got 80 columns !!