Gadgets - including 3D printers

[David Makin]

Hi all, went to the "Gadget Show" exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham on Tuesday and thought I'd report on a few things.

First the downside - surprisingly few "dolly birds" about, less than 10 in fact, definitely a little disappointing for this type of exhibition

Now the good stuff, first the items most relevant to fractalforums - namely 3D printers.

There were two types on show (unless we missed any) very much at opposite ends of both the economic and tech scales.

The most interesting for all here is probably the low-end model - the RapMan 3.1 by "Bits from Bytes" with the cheapest model in kit form coming in at under £800 !!
Unfortunately the resolution is only 0.1mm vertically (z) and a mere 0.4mm horizontally (both x and y) but the results were definitely good enough to print low-detail 3D Mandelbulbs etc. at around 20 cm square (very roughly - I didn't make a note of the max. dimensions).
There's also a more robust ready-built printer model and I think both types come with from 1 to 3 "print heads" - the 3 headed versions giving you up to 3 colours on a single "print" without any tedious manually changing of source material.
I'd say pretty good for the hobbyist and particularly if you prefer to be "hands on" but nowhere near as professional a finish as the expensive alternative.
Bits From Bytes : http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/

The other on demonstration came in at a cool £170,000 so was completely at the other end of the scale
It was the Objet Connex from Objet 3D Printers: http://www.ops-uk.com/3d-printers
Quote:
    * The world’s only multi-material 3D printer;
    * Can produce models with up to 11 different Shore Scales in a single print;
    * Prints at 30 micron resolutions with multi-materials or an incredible 16 microns in single-material mode.
The materials they showed were all greyscale from white to black plus one clear transparent (like perspex) and one translucent yellowish cream (like very pale amber).
Obviously a little out of my price range as a printer but the objects produced are not - the guy said around £8 (to the printmaker) for an object around 5" square so if you can find someone who'll print mandelbulbs on one of these then the results could be both high quality, multi-shaded and not rediculously expensive.

A remote-control toy stall also caught our eye - in particular the helicopters, so much that myself and Steve both bought one - a mere £30
I've found out since that apparently the guy on the stall was the owner of the company (he looked around 24) and has been on Dragon's Den.
http://www.flyinggadgets.co.uk/

I checked out 3D TV - not really all it's cracked up to be - looks like 2D sprites in a 3D world due to the depth effect not working for smaller distance differences because that requires a screen resoultion of about 4* HD (both ways) and the guy I was with (Steve) could see nothing but a blur (he can't see well at all in one eye).

The other interesting items, and strictly speaking the most interesting new "gadgets" were the headsets that read your mind, allowing you (with a lot of practice) to control things with the power of your mind or more specifically alpha-waves at least.
Tried it and managed a certain amount of "predictability" in around 2 minutes so these are definitely something worth looking into - I think they were on sale for around £60 to £90 with sample apps/games.
The company for these was Neurosky - http://www.neurosky.com/

Although pleased with getting the helicopter for £30 I was even more pleased with my other buy.
One of the stands was Park Cameras and I decided to chat to a guy there as I've been using my dad's digital camera but been disappointed that it doesn't do good close-ups (macro mode) and was trying to find out how much I'd have to pay for something better - I didn't intend to buy a camera but after the example macro shot the guy took I couldn't resist and acquired a Casio EX-Z2300 for £99 with an added 4GB card for £6.49.
Afterwards I found out that Park Cameras are doing that model for £109 online but the Casio RRP is over £200. Also I found a "Which?" magazine review in which the exact model had got maximum scores in all categories tested (at least 20 issues considered).
So I'm really pleased with my new camera - especially after the test shots I've done since, so anyone looking for a digital camera for £50 to £250 I highly recommend the Casio EX-Z2300
http://www.parkcameras.com/

[ant123]

http://www.wimp.com/functionaltools/


prints moving part 3d things

[Xazo-Tak]

Make a menger sponge out of flexible material.