Not much is left to the imagination when it comes to 3D printing. After all, we’ve covered topics like 3D-printing with Nutella and even 3D-printing an International Space Station among others. Well, today, we want to take a better look at Disney Research’s take on 3D printing.

Over a year ago, Disney Research unveiled its needle-felting machine. This time around however, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, the innovative duo has released another fabric 3D printer!

The “Layered Fabric 3D Printer” works in a way that a 3D model is broken down into slices, which are then translated into a 3D printer. From this point, lasers are used to cut the outline of each layer from a roll of thick felt. This layer of felt is then placed on the print bed when a layer of heat-sensitive adhesive is activated by a warm disc that’s located on the print head.

This process is then repeated over and over again until the object is fully “printed.” Once this is all said and done, a soft, flexible layered object is revealed.

The printer doesn’t work exclusively with felt; in fact, it works with multiple materials and can integrate two types of fabric into one object. It’s this innovation that Disney says can allow them to invent custom creations on demand that also are interactive electrical objects.

Now, there are some drawbacks to this technique that was designed by Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University. For instance, the Stanford bunny test print, which was 2.5 inches tall took around two and a half hours to print and the layers of this object were more prominent due to the fact that the bunny was relatively small in comparison to the felt that was used to print.

According to Disney Research scientist Jim McCann, there could be a trade-off and that would be that thinner fabric could be used to create a larger bunny. The layers would then be less pronounced; however, the downside to this new process would be that the printing time would increase.

Take a look at this video to get a better look at Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University’s latest innovative 3D-printing endeavor:

Copyright Inventionland, 2015

Sources:

https://www.cnet.com/news/disney-researchs-new-3d-printer-can-print-in-fabric/

Media:

https://www.3printr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/disney_research_3d_drucker_3d_printer.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jErWRddFYs

The post Disney Research is at it Again- Find Out Why! appeared first on Inventionland.

In 2013, the Disney Research team unveiled 3D-printed eyes for their animated characters.

Of course, since it’s Disney, the innovation didn’t stop there; in fact, this year, the Disney Research team upgraded this invention and created realistic 3D-printed human eyes.

The latest innovation is moving Disney closer to creating more precise portrayals of Disney characters.

The people at Disney Research recently presented a paper at SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques) Asia 2014, titled, “High Quality Capture of Human Eyes.”

Along with this paper, Disney Research made the announcement that through 3D printing, they have created a method to capture the intricacies of the eye, not only in appearance, but also how eyes respond to light, textures, coloring and veins.

All of these characteristics were added to enhance the appearance of the characters’ eyes by allowing them to have more expressive and realistic characteristics.

In order to create these realistic 3D-printed human eyes, the Disney Research team employed the help of six volunteers, who were asked to lie on the floor wearing headsets, all the while shifting between 11 different poses.

While this was happening, the research team focused six of their cameras on the volunteers’ irises and then used colored LEDS and different levels of brightness in order to produce changes in the corneas.

From there, these images were then brought together to recreate realistic eye movement.  The Disney Research team then reconstructed skin with a 3D printing facial scanning system.

Has this innovation from the Disney Research team piqued your interest? If so, check out this video to get a better understanding of Disney’s 3D-printed human eye!

Copyright Inventionland, 2014

Sources:

https://3dprint.com/29400/disney-research-3d-eye-study/

https://www.engadget.com/2014/12/05/disney-research-3d-eye-capture/

Media:

https://www.acm.org/icmi/2012/imgs/logo_disneyresearch.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3X5OmHXa4c

The post Disney Research Team Has Their “Eyes” on Innovation appeared first on Inventionland.