A 3D printer that uses glass for ink

3D printed glass wow beautiful

A group of MIT scientists have recently 3D printed some spectacular glass creations.The glass sculptures were created by a group called Mediated Matter, led by Neri Oxman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The color and transparency of the glass can be altered, as well as other properties such as how the glass reflects and refracts light.

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Top 10 ways nanotechnology is transforming the world around us

Gecko
Nanotechnology might be outside your window at this very moment in the form of a gecko-like human scaling a self-cleaning, nano-enhanced solar window.

A pair of hand-held, gecko-inspired paddles that can help you ascend a 25-foot sheet of glass might not seem like the most impressive use of nanotechnology but this real-world advance aptly demonstrates how quickly the field of nanotechnology is climbing into our lives. Below are ten additional examples of how nanotechnology is already changing the world, followed by 10 ways it may help society scale even greater heights in the near future.

 

 

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A solar-powered 3D printer that prints glass from sand

Marcus Kayser’s Solar Sinter project

When Markus Kayser, a design student, wanted to test his solar-powered, sand-fed 3-D printer, he knew the gray skies outside his London apartment wouldn’t do. So he shipped the 200-plus-pound contraption to Cairo, Egypt, flew there himself, and haggled with officials for two days to get it out of customs. A few small “tips” and 11 hours of driving later, he finally made it to the Sahara. But soon the mercury hit 104 degrees, his components nearly overheated, and he was forced to improvise.

 

 

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Lumus DK-40 Glass to have full augmented reality

Lumus DK-40

Lumus, a transparent display specialist and military head-up screen supplier, is wading into the wearable computing market, revealing a new developer kit that, unlike Google’s Glass, offers full augmented reality support. Set to debut at CES 2014 next month, the Lumus DK-40 monocular dev kit may look ostensibly like Glass at first glance, but where Google’s headset has a small display-block suspended in the corner, the entire right lens of the Lumus wearable is in fact a 640 x 480 display. That means developers building apps for the Android-powered headset can overlay graphics directly on top of the real-world view, rather than simply sliding in separate notifications as Glass does.

 

 

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Book Mountain: A stunning glass-enclosed library

MVRDV, a Rotterdam-based company,  has just completed the ‘book mountain + library quarter’ centrally located in the market square of Spijkenisse, the Netherlands. It houses a mountain of bookshelves and is contained by a glass-enclosed structure and pyramidal roof with an impressive total surface area of 9,300 square meters. Corridors and platforms bordering the form are accessed by a network of stairs to allow visitors to browse the tiers of shelves. A continuous route of 480 meters culminates at the peak’s reading room and cafe with panoramic views through the transparent roof. Any possible damage caused to the books by direct sunlight is offset by the expected 4 year lifespan of borrowed materials. (Photos)

 

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Researchers develop self-cooling windows

Self-cooling windows let in the sunshine without the heat.

Homeowners love a lot of windows in their homes that let in a lot of sunlight.  But those windows can also mean higher air conditioning bills since they absorb heat but don’t tend to cool themselves, until now. Harvard researchers have created self-cooling windows.

 

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Google is melding real and virtual worlds with games, apps, and Glass

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Ingress, Google’s virtual reality game

In Google’s global alternative reality game, Ingress. that uses the real world as its gamespace, Ingress says, “the world around you is not what it seems.” And, perhaps, when Google’s semi-independent division Niantic Labs is finished with its mission, we humans won’t be, either.

 

 

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MIT researchers develop self-cleaning glass

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8he2oKAR8IE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

A team of researchers at MIT claim to have developed a new and improved glass that is both anti-fogging and glare-free. The near-invisible glass is also said to be self-cleaning, and it could have dozens of practical applications.

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Solar Sinter – 3D printer uses the sun to create glass objects out of sand

3d printer

Sun-powered, sand-fed 3D printer.

Design student Markus Kayser wanted to test his sun-powered, sand-fed 3-D printer, but he knew the gray skies in London wouldn’t do. He decided to ship the 200-plus-pound contraption to Cairo, Egypt, flew there himself, and haggled with officials for two days to get it out of customs. A few small “tips” and 11 hours of driving later, he finally made it to the Sahara. But soon the mercury hit 104 degrees, his components nearly overheated, and he was forced to improvise.

 

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British scientists develop computer memory made of glass

superman

The glass memory has been compared to the ‘memory crystals’ used in the Superman films.

Soon computers may be saving their data onto hard drives made of glass following research by British scientists who have developed a way of storing information similar to the “memory crystals” seen in the Superman films.

 

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Corning’s “A Day Made of Glass” Video – The Future of Specialty Glass

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38[/youtube]

Can you imagine organizing your daily schedule with a few touches on your bathroom mirror? Chatting with far-away relatives through interactive video on your kitchen counter? Reading a classic novel on a whisper-thin piece of flexible glass?

 

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Discover the Hidden Patterns of Tomorrow with Futurist Thomas Frey
Unlock Your Potential, Ignite Your Success.

By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.

Learn More about this exciting program.