Categories
3D Printing

3D Printers for Libraries, 2017 Edition

Back in 2014, I wrote a Library Technology Report for ALA entitled 3D Printers for Libraries (Creative Commons licensed version found can be found here). In the past 3 years, much has changed in the world of 3D printing: they exploded across libraryland, became cheaper and more useful, and the number of printer makers has grown like mad. So when ALA asked if I’d update the LTR for 2017, I said yes.

In it, I cover many of the changes in the 3D printing landscape, including the huge variety of new filaments and their properties. Tons of new printers, new types of control software that’s emerged since the last Report, and lots more that can help inform libraries and librarians about the possibilities for 3D printers in 2017.

I hope people find it useful and informative!

Categories
3D Printing Release_Candidate

3D Scanning with Water

The research is documented in a paper entitled “Dip Transform for 3D Shape Reconstruction,” which you can access here. In the paper, the researchers describe how they created what’s called a dip scanner, which literally dips an object into a bath of water. The object is repeatedly dipped in different orientations, and the water’s volume displacement is measured, which provides an accurate representation of the object’s entire shape.

Source: 3D Scanning with Water: Researchers Introduce New “Dip Transform” Method | 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing

Categories
Berkman

Berkman Klein Center Affiliate 2017-2018

I am honored to be included in the list of 2017-2018 Berkman Klein community members. This group of scholars, researchers, legal experts, technologists, information specialists, and more inspire me every year, and I can’t wait to meet the newest class. Here’s hoping I can continue to be worthy of inclusion in this fantastic community…the things I’ve learned over the last two years makes me incredibly excited for what’s to come in year three.

Categories
Release_Candidate Uncategorized

ARKit Inter-dimensional Portal

This is crazy. Apple is killing it with ARKit.

ARKit Inter-dimensional Portal by @nedd. Music by The SAME.

Source: Made With ARKit – ARKit Inter-dimensional Portal by @nedd. Music…

Categories
Personal

Measure the Future project goes Public Beta

Over on the Measure the Future project blog, I posted about going formally into public beta. I’m very proud of the work that’s been done to get the project to this point. I couldn’t have gotten this far without help from so many people, including especially the Alpha testers and the development team (Clinton Freeman, you’re a miracle worker). Here’s an excerpt from the longer post over on the MtF blog:

Measure the Future is also adding additional locations for installs with a new round of 4 Beta partner libraries. These additional locations (announcement soon on who those are) will give us even more feedback and will work with us to determine the best way to present this new type of library usage data. We will be answering the questions that our Beta partners want answered, so if you have questions you want our help with, please let us know. We have room for a couple more libraries in our Beta testing, and would love to work with you.

The big development goal for our Beta period is the move from local visualization of activity and attention in library spaces to a cloud-based portal that will allow for much richer visualizations. We are dedicated to making this move from local-to-cloud as privacy-focused and security-aware as possible, and so we will be taking great care in how we move forward.

Head over to read the full announcement, and visit Measure the Future to see all the code, instructions, and more that we released this weekend. There’s more to come, including a walk-though of a setup as soon as I can get some video and screen recordings together.

Categories
3D Printing Release_Candidate

 BlackBelt 3D Printer

This is the first truly novel FDM 3d printer that I’ve seen in years…not only do they look like they’ve solved a few issues (printing at an angle allows for overhangs to be dealt with differently) but the never-ending printed is genius. The printer isn’t cheap, but this is extremely clever engineering.

I look forward to seeing this come to fruition.

Categories
Machine Learning/AI Release_Candidate User Interface

Elon Musk Thinks We’re Four or Five Years Away From Neural Lace

Elon Musk’s neural lace project could turn us all into cyborgs, and he says that it’s only four or five years away. The billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla has long been an outspoken critic of unrestricted artificial intelligence, and has been quietly researching the concept of “neural lace,” a merger of machine learning and human intelligence that could revolutionize our species. In a profile published Monday in Vanity Fair, Musk said he thinks a “meaningful partial brain interface” could be here in less t

Source: Elon Musk Thinks We’re Four or Five Years Away From Neural Lace | Inverse

Categories
Drones FutureTech Release_Candidate

DJI MG-1S – Agricultural Wonder Drone

Farmers are required to manage acres of farmland at a time, and have recently begun to tap into aerial technology to do so efficiently and sustainably. DJI MG-1S revolutionizes the way in which farmers can utilize drones to manage and take care of their crops. In this video, three individuals in the agricultural drone industry speak of their experiences with DJI’s MG-1S and tell us why it stands out amongst the UAV choices when considering factors of precision, effectiveness, intuitiveness, ease of use, s

Categories
Machine Learning/AI Release_Candidate Robots

Robot Scanners + AI metadata = Ripcord

Sounds more and more like Rainbows End every day…

Ripcord takes your static, paper records collecting dust in warehouses and uses robots to scan, OCR and upload them to Ripcord Canopy, our cloud platform. Once on Ripcord Canopy, you can manage your records or integrate them into your existing enterprise systems. Ripcord’s end-to-end solution includes shipping, scanning, indexing, auto-classifying and unlimited access to Ripcord Canopy. We also include connections to the enterprise systems you already use at no extra cost.

Source: Digitization | Ripcord

Categories
Internet of Things Release_Candidate

The Internet of Cows

Yep. IoT for Cows. I can’t wait for this to be hacked somehow, and used a a distributed cownet.

Tie the cowlar on the cow’s neck. The Cowlar simply consists of a strap designed to comfortably fit around your cow and a small magic box that measure temperature, activity and cow behaviour, i.e. whether it’s eating, sleeping, ruminating or showing lameness.

Source: Cowlar – How It Works