Printing a human kidney

Can we use the 3D printing technology to “print” a human kidney ?

In this TED talk from 2011 we get an insight into a project designed to just that.

Surgeon Anthony Atala demonstrates an early-stage experiment that could someday solve the organ-donor problem: a 3D printer that uses living cells to output a transplantable kidney. Using similar technology, Dr. Atala’s young patient Luke Massella received an engineered bladder 10 years ago; we meet him onstage.

3D Printing: This Century’s Most Disruptive Innovation?!

TEDx (Photo credit: TEDxTalks)

Can we build a 3D Printer and why ?

Those are the questions that this TEDx talk is trying to answer.

David F. Flanders is a 3D printing guru and the host of PIF3D, a collective dedicated to hosting “build parties,” during which 3D printing experts help curious outsiders build personal 3D printers. In this talk from TEDxHamburg, he discusses the development of the technology and the implications of its mass use, including 3D printers’ role in recovery relief, architecture, and the office supply closet.

A primer on 3D printing

As a follow-up to my last posts about 3D printing here and here, here it is an interesting TED talk about the technology and the process behind this.

2012 may be the year of 3D printing, when this three-decade-old technology finally becomes accessible and even commonplace.

Lisa Harouni gives a useful introduction to this fascinating way of making things — including intricate objects once impossible to create.

3D Printed Robot InMoov Open Source

In this interesting video we can find out more about a robot built using a 3D printer.

Inmoov Robot

You can follow the progress of this project and download the printable parts on:

• http://inmoov.blogspot.com
• http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:17773
• http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:18939

 

Image Credit: http://inmoov.blogspot.com

3D Printed Record

This is an interesting video about a 3D printed record that you can actually play.

I’ve created a technique for converting digital audio files into 3D printable 33rpm records and printed some functional prototypes over the weekend. These records play on regular turntables, with regular needles, at regular speeds, just like any vinyl record. The audio on the records is very low resolution (as you can hear), it has a sampling rate of 11kHz (a quarter of typical mp3 audio) and 5-6bit resolution (mp3 audio is 16 bit).

More information about this technique:

The record playing: