AA.+Technology+Class+Page+(Dr.+Floyd)

Materials and Assignments for Dr. Floyd Ausburn's technolgy class (OCED 5483) will be posted here. [[image:visdesignoced/FloydPhoto.jpg]]

 * Hello Digital Imaging and Virtual Reality class. I am "Dr. Floyd" and I teach the advanced technology classes in the OCED program. I hold a Ph.D. in Educational Media and Technology from University of Oklahoma and have been involved in international development projects in technology and economic development in 19 different countries over more than 30 years. I retired from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, where I was in charge of the instructional technology programfor 15 years. I was an OSU international development specialist and Chairman of the Oklahoma International Development Group for several years. I am a specialist in desktop virtual reality and virtual environments and in the digital photography that is used to create these environments.**


 * In this class, we will explore state-of-the-art digital photography and the hardware and software used to create high-quality desktop virtual reality environments. You will have opportunity to learn about and try out an extensive set of professional-quality photographic and VR equipment and software. This set of hardware and software is valued at nearly $30,000; it was obtained through a major OSU College of Education Technology Fees grant and a research/development partnership with the Gigapan Systems company. Our OCED VR Research Team partneship with GigaPan is shared with such outstanding groups as Carnegie Mellon University, NASA, and National Geographic.**

** WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF DIGITAL IMAGING AND VIRTUAL REALITY! **

 * __Syllabus and Schedule for OCED 5483 Spring 2012__**



__** Using Technology Booklet - Ausburn and Ausburn (2009) **__

CAMERA SIMULATORS
Try out these online interactive simulators that illustrate relationships and results of changing camera controls. See what you can learn about how these variables are related and what happens to picture results when you change the various controls.

=** ASSIGNMENTS **=
 * [|Camera Simulator: Aperture, Shutter & ISO]**
 * [|SLR Camera Simulator]**

__** Assignment for February 1 **__ 1. Open the Technology Use Booklet by Ausburn and Ausburn (2009) listed above. Just click to open it. Read pages 2-17 (up through section on scanners) to gain some basic information about the history, benefits, and current status of computing technology.

2. Read about Belarc Advisor computer analysis software on page 10 of the technology booklet. Click on the link below to go to the Belarc web site. When the Belarc home page opens, click on the link to "Learn about Products" then look for Belarc Advisor, which is the free software for personal use. Download load Belarc Advisor (it is a SAFE download) and run the software on your computer to get a complete analysis of the hardware components and the software currently located in your computer. Print out the Belarc analysis of your computer and bring it to class for discussion. [|Belarc Advisor]

__**ASSIGNMENTS FOR FEBRUARY 8**__
Please complete the following for class on Feb. 8. We will be using this information for several class sessions.

1. Go to the web sites listed below (wikipedia and Geoff Lawrence Photography - direct links are below) and look up the following photographic terms: focus, aperature, shutter speed, depth of field, lens focal length, exposure, ISO (speed), CCD/CMOS, raw camera data, bracketing, HDR, white balance and gray card, histogram, lighting and flash, rule of thirds, RGB & CMYK, color, filters. Wikipedia has a consiterable amount of information - just search on specific terms. The Geoff Lawrence site has excellent tutorials and information, with topics neatly arranged at the left side of the home page. Check out this site carefully; it is a goldmine of photographic information. You might find the opening sections on digital photography and choosing a digital camera very informative and useful.

[|Wikipedia] [|Geoff Lawrence Photography]

2. Open the documents attached below and study them carefully. We will discuss in class, so make printouts to bring to class. If you have trouble opening the PPT file, don't worry - I will bring copies to class.



3. Copy the following manuals to a portable medium (laptop, jumpdrive, external drive) so you can use them in class. These are manuals and specifications for the major cameras you will be using in class.



For our February 27th class, **complete the VR research assignment as shown on the assignment sheet posted below**. This assignment will start you thinking about the exciting research potential for VR. We will discuss your findings and ideas in class. __PLEASE BE PREPARED TO TURN IN YOUR WRITTEN WORK FOR CREDIT.__ NOTE: You should use appropriate research journals for this assignment. You can find suitable journals by searchiing for key words such as //virtual reality, educational technology, virtual worlds, virtual environments.//
 * __ ASSIGNMENT FOR February 27 __**



__** OVER SPRING BREAK, please comlete the following assignments for our class on March 27 **__ 1. Review your final project assignments and work on them. Instructions for both projects are posted at the bottom of this page. There are 2 assignments: One is to create a PowerPoint presentation with advanced digital imaging features (photos, videos, etc.). The other, marked Final Exam, requires creation of an "order" for a set of hardware/software for VR production using an imaginary budget of $40,000. Complete instructions are in the sheet of instructions posted at the bottom of this page.

2. Discover The concept/construct of "Presence" in Virtual Reality. This property is extremely important in VR/VE research and implementation. It is so important that a major professional society and entire journal are dedicated to Presence. Learn more about Presence in VR/VEs at the website of the International Society for Presence Research. Also ready the paper by Ausburn and Ausburn on Presence and VR Spheres of Reality.

[|International Society for Presence Research]

__** Paper on Presence and VR Spheres of Reality - Ausburn and Ausburn, 2010 **__

3. HANDS-ON PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECS To do this assignment, you need access to a digital camera that is switchable to MANUAL setting. If you cannot get access to such a camera, I understand and will excuse you from completin this assignment. Instead, you will learn from your classmates' experience. __To Complete This Assignment:__ (A) Set your digital camera to MANUAL. Take several photos, experimenting with different aperture settings (f stops). As you change aperture/f-stop setting, see what happens to depth of field. Notice how there is greater depth of field at distance than closer up. Notice that the scale of depth of field is greater for a distant object than for a close-up object (e.g. a butterfly, flower, leaf, coin, etc.).

(B) Next, experiment with shutter speed. As you change shutter speeds, notice what happens. Notice that as you increase shutter speed, you must open up the lens (go to smaller f-stop) to compensate for less light.

(C) If your camera has an adjustable ISO, experiment with changing the ISO sensitivity and observe how as the ISO number goes up, light sensitivity increases but image quality declines. A ISO number goes down, light sensitivity decreases but image quality goes up.

(D) See if you can discover what the CCD/CMOS size is for your digital camera. __**Handouts on Manfrotto Tripod Heads**__ 12 March 2013 Last updated at 13:55 ET
 * Bring to class several photographs (on a memory stick of CD will be fine) illustrating your experiments. Also bring CCD/CMoss information for your camera if you find it. **
 * END OF SPRING BREAK ASSIGNMENT**

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Share this page 1.6K ='Pirate Bay' for 3D printing launched= The idea has grown out of a project to build a printed gun Continue reading the main story==Related Stories== The company that developed 3D printed gun parts has announced plans to launch a new firm, dedicated to copyright-free blueprints for a range of 3D printable objects. Defcad, as the firm will be known, has already been dubbed the Pirate Bay of 3D printing. The site will become a "search engine for 3D printing," according to its founders. But its flouting of copyright is likely to face legal challenges. Wiki weapon The firm is the brainchild of Cody Wilson, law student and self-styled crypto-anarchist. Last year he set up Defense Distributed, a project aiming to print gun parts. The project provoked controversy with 3D printing firm MakerBot pulling gun part blueprints from its website in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings and 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys refusing permission for its machines to be used by the company. It is also facing legal challenges to shut the site down. Despite the set-backs, it released a video this month demonstrating an AR-15 with a 3D printed part firing more than 600 rounds. Meanwhile its blueprints at non-profit Defcad.org have seen 400,000 downloads since the site was launched, according to founder Cody Wilson. Announcing the new for-profit Defcad.com at the South by South West conference in Texas, Mr Wilson said it was an obvious next step for the wiki weapon project. "Help us turn Defcad into the world's first unblockable, open-source search engine for 3D printable parts," says Mr Wilson in the[| video posted on the website] looking for funding. In the video, Mr Wilson said the revolution which many predict 3D printing will bring about will only happen if it can be freed from corporate ties. The blueprints available on the site will be for "important stuff", he said. "Not trinkets, not garden gnomes but the things institutions and industries have an interest in keeping from us; access, medical devices, drugs, goods, guns." "Supplying consumers with blueprints to print products designed by third parties is a business model fraught with risk," said Lorna Caddy of law firm Taylor Wessing. "Many of those products will be protected by intellectual property rights, such as design law. Owners of those rights could assert them in the courts to prevent their designs being further distributed and to seek financial compensation," she added.
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 * Firm pulls 3D gun-parts print plans
 * Plans to print a gun put on hold
 * New York gets 3D printing store

=Replicator maker talks up 3D printing tech= The new 3D printer is intended for industrial designers and artists Continue reading the main story==Related Stories== The gospel about 3D printing is being taken to the streets of New York. MakerBot Industries, best known for its small 3D printers, has opened a shop in Manhattan through which it will aim to sell the joys of home fabrication to the general public. The store opening comes as MakerBot releases the second incarnation of its Replicator 3D printer. The Replicator 2.0 works to much finer resolutions than earlier versions and can fabricate much bigger objects. Supply side MakerBot said the store, the first of its kind, would act as a showcase for 3D printing and stage demonstrations and workshops for those who were curious about the technology. 3D printing involves building up objects layer by layer out of plastic that is melted and fed via a carefully controlled nozzle to form a shape. The printers were initially used in engineering and design firms to produce and refine prototypes. Now many home hackers, makers and artists use 3D printers to turn out their own customised creations. Examples include model soldiers, cases for home electronic projects, and furniture for dolls' houses. Bre Pettis said the Replicator 2.0 was aimed at the "prosumer" - either a design professional or a hardcore hobbyist. The device costs $2,199 (£1,360) and builds objects up in layers only 100 microns thick. In previous versions, each layer was about 270 microns thick. Mat Fordy, founder and boss of coolcomponents.co.uk that sells 3D printers and other home hacking gear, said the technology was proving popular. "We've really seen the affordable 3D printer market in the UK explode over the last couple of years," he told the BBC. "Many types of people use them, not just professionals, but people who have an idea that they need to touch and hold." He said the new MakerBot was a great looking piece of kit but supply problems had made it hard to get hold of. "They never seem to have enough to go around, and that puts a lot of people off," he said. "Other excellent printers are in ready supply, and many people just give up waiting and get one of those instead." __**Medical**__ 21 February 2011 Last updated at 05:31 ET
 * 3D printers make puppets smile
 * Geek camp comes to Milton Keynes
 * Sugar 'to shape synthetic liver'

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Share this page 2.1K ='Printing out' new ears and skin= By Jason Palmer and Matt Danzico BBC News, Washington DC [|Advertisement]
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Hod Lipson: 'People have been trying to expand the range of materials that can be fabricated using a 3D printer' Continue reading the main story==Related Stories== The next step in the 3D printing revolution may be body parts including cartilage, bone and even skin. Three-dimensional printing is a technique for making solid objects with devices not unlike a computer printer, building up line by line, and then vertically layer by layer. While the approach works with polymers and plastics, the raw ingredients of 3D printing have been recently branching out significantly. The printers have been co-opted even to make foods, and do-it-yourself biology experiments dubbed "garage biotech" - and has most recently been employed to repair a casting of Rodin's sculpture The Thinker that was damaged in a botched robbery. But at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC, the buzzword is bioprinting: using the same technique to artfully knock out new body parts. Print preview James Yoo, of the Institute of Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University, told the meeting of his group's aim to print skin directly onto burn victims. Continue reading the main story==“Start Quote== > If I have to guess, I'd say that in 20 years this technology will be mainstream, absolutely” End Quote Hod Lipson Cornell University "What motivated us to start this programme and development is the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq," he said. "Up to 30% of all injuries and casualties that occur from the war involve the skin, and using bioprinting we thought that we could address some of the challenges they're facing with burn care." Professor Yoo's group is developing a portable system that can be brought directly to burn victims. "What's unique about this device is that it has a scanner system that can identify the extent and depth of the wound, because every wound is different," he said. He added: "That scan gets converted into 3D digital images; that determines how many layers of cells then need to be deposited to restore the normal configuration of the injured tissue." Hod Lipson, director of the Computational Synthesis Laboratory at Cornell University, brought a 3D printer to the conference, to demonstrate how his well-established project, named Fab@Home, is branching out into bioprinting - by creating an ear. Ear today The machine starts with a computer file with the 3D coordinates from a scan of a real ear. For the demonstration, the real cells that the group would normally use have been replaced with silicone gel in order to bioprint the shape. The technique has already been used to print repairs into real animal bones The team has also published its [|results from bioprinting repairs in damaged animal bone]. But the method is still in its infancy, and several technical hurdles lie between the groups' current efforts and a future in which injured body parts are repaired digitally on-site or simply printed out fresh. "Some tissues can be handled more easily than others," Professor Lipson said. "We and our colleagues have started with cartilage; it's amorphous, it doesn't have a lot of internal structure and vascularisation - that's the entry level point to start with. "That has been fairly successful in animal models, and that would be the first thing you'll see used in practice. From there we'll climb the complexity of tissue, going to bone, or perhaps liver." Another concern is that bioprinted tissues aren't easy to connect to the real thing. "One of the advantages of using the computerised printing is that you can create a tissue construct in a more accurate manner than when you're trying to build something manually," Professor Yoo said. "But how can we create and connect those tissues produced outside the body? Whatever you put in the body has to be connected with the body's blood vessels, blood supply and oxygen. That's one of the challenges we'll face with larger tissues." Whatever the challenges ahead, Professor Lipson told BBC News that he believed bioprinting will overcome them to become a standard technique. "If I have to guess, I'd say that in 20 years this technology will be mainstream, absolutely," he said. 2 July 2012 Last updated at 13:33 ET
 * The printed future of Christmas dinner
 * Tech Know: Life hacking
 * 3D printing revolution

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Share this page 955 =3D-printed sugar network to help grow artificial liver= The scientists managed to keep cells alive in engineered tissues Continue reading the main story==Related Stories== Researchers have moved a step closer to creating a synthetic liver, after a US team created a template for blood vessels to grow into, using sugar. Scientists have long been experimenting with the 3D printing of cells and blood vessels, building up tissue structure layer by layer with artificial cells. But the synthetically engineered cells often die before the tissue is formed. The technology, in which a 3D printer uses sugar as its building material, could one day be used for transplants. The study appears in the journal Nature Materials. Dr Jordan Miller from the lab of the lead scientist, Dr Christopher Chen, at the University of Pennsylvania, told BBC News: "The big challenge in understanding how to grow large artificial tissue is how to keep all the cells alive in these engineered tissues, because when you put a lot of cells together, they end up taking nutrients and oxygen from neighbouring cells and end up suffocating and dying." Continue reading the main story==“Start Quote== > Sugar is a very nice material that can be dissolved away in the presence of living tissue, it's very friendly to biological tissue ” End Quote Prof Sangeeta Bhatia MIT The body's cardiovascular system - blood vessels - solves this issue with natural cells and tissues. So a group of scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) decided to build a synthetic vascular system that would serve the same purpose - by creating a place where the future artificial blood vessels would be located. Dr Miller's colleague Prof Sangeeta Bhatia, from MIT, said that the technique was similar to creating the shape of a vase in wax, surrounding it with molten metal and then melting the wax away. Sugar use But instead of wax, the team used sugar. "So far, it's been difficult to make organs big enough so that they could provide useful function - and if you implant any tissue thicker than about a millimetre, we can't provide it enough nutrients without also engineering blood vessels into the tissue," said Prof Bhatia. "We created a network of places that we wish vessels to grow into, so they would become piping into the tissue, and we printed those in 3D out of sugar. There have been other attempts to make artificial blood vessels "Sugar is a very nice material that can be dissolved away in the presence of living tissue, it's very friendly to biological tissue. "We then surrounded the network with the cells that we would like to be fed by the blood vessels when the tissue is implanted - and once we have this structure of pipes-to-be and tissue, we dissolve away the sugar using water." Although the researches did not do any implantation, they said they had wanted to demonstrate that it was possible to build the thicker tissue that could be fed by this network of pipes - and this way, to create a full organ in future. "We showed that you can use a 3D printer to print an arbitrary network of vessels for any tissue shape or any network of blood vessels, and then surround them with cells that you would like to create the organ out of," said Prof Bhatia. "We tried to make a liver, so we surrounded them with liver cells, but one could do it with any other tissue." Continue reading the main story==“Start Quote== > This group of scientists has correctly identified that the sticking point in all this is going to be vascularity - blood vessels” End Quote Prof Martin Birchall University College London Exciting findings Prof Martin Birchall, a surgeon scientist at University College London, said the research answered "a lot of fundamental problems in tissue engineering." "The idea of 3D printing has been around for several years, and certainly it is possible to print virtually anything," he said. "You can use biomaterials, cells or a combination these, and this group of scientists has correctly identified that the sticking point in all this is going to be vascularity - blood vessels - making sure that you've got sufficient nutrients going in and waste coming out of something that otherwise is going to be a solid block of stuff. "And if you're going to build something like a kidney, you're going to need that. "I'm fascinated by their proposals, they're quite a way from clinic yet, the next step is going to be testing it on animals, but it is certainly very exciting."
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 * Blood vessels made on 3D printer
 * 3D DIY chocolate printer debuts
 * 3D printing helps firms make parts

=Artificial blood vessels created on a 3D printer= By Katia Moskvitch Technology reporter, BBC News Artificial blood vessels could help those in urgent need of an organ transplant Continue reading the main story==Related Stories== Artificial blood vessels made on a 3D printer may soon be used for transplants of lab-created organs. Until now, the stumbling block in tissue engineering has been supplying artificial tissue with nutrients that have to arrive via capillary vessels. A team at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany has solved that problem using 3D printing and a technique called multiphoton polymerisation. The findings will be shown at the Biotechnica Fair in Germany in October. Out of thousands of patients in desperate need of an organ transplant there are inevitably some who do not get it in time. In Germany, for instance, more than 11,000 people have been put on an organ transplant waiting list in 2011 alone. To make sure more patients receive these life-saving surgeries, researchers in tissue engineering all over the globe have been working on creating artificial tissue and even entire organs in the lab. But for a lab-made organ to function, it needs to be equipped with artificial blood vessels - tiny and extremely complex tubes that our organs naturally possess, used to carry nutrients. Continue reading the main story==“Start Quote== > The individual techniques are already functioning and they are presently working in the test phase” End Quote Dr Gunter Tovar Fraunhofer Institute, Germany Numerous attempts have been made to create synthetic capillaries, and the latest one by the German team seems to be especially promising. "The individual techniques are already functioning and they are presently working in the test phase; the prototype for the combined system is being built," said Dr Gunter Tovar, who heads the BioRap project at Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart. Elastic biomaterials 3D printing technology has been increasingly used in numerous industries, ranging from creating clothes, architectural models and even chocolate treats. But this time, Dr Tovar's team had a much more challenging printing mission. To print something as small and complex as a blood vessel, the scientists combined the 3D printing technology with two-photon polymerisation - shining intense laser beams onto the material to stimulate the molecules in a very small focus point. The material then becomes an elastic solid, allowing the researchers to create highly precise and elastic structures that would be able to interact with a human body's natural tissue. So that the synthetic tubes do not get rejected by the living organism, their walls are coated with modified biomolecules. Such biomolecules are also present in the composition of the "inks" used for the blood vessel printer, combined with synthetic polymers. "We are establishing a basis for applying rapid prototyping to elastic and organic biomaterials," said Dr Tovar. "The vascular systems illustrate very dramatically what opportunities this technology has to offer, but that's definitely not the only thing possible."
 * 3D DIY chocolate printer debuts
 * 3D printing helps firms make parts
 * The 3D printing revolution rolls on

With the creation of many products - including building materials - now possible at the touch of a button, will 3D printing sound the death knell for mass production? In a way there is nothing new about 3D printing. For several decades it has been called "rapid prototyping": a quick way of making one-off items from fused plastic or metal powder, using expensive computer-controlled lasers that are at the heart of the "printers". But now 3D printing is coming into its own, and is being taken seriously as a manufacturing process by very big corporations. For 100 years, the manufacturing industry has been dominated by the idea of mass production. That was devised by Henry Ford in Detroit in the early 1900s to tackle a severe shortage of skilled labour when he wanted to start making the revolutionary Model T automobiles. Ford's factories melted iron ore, stamped out car bodies, used interchangeable parts to turn out millions of cars in, as the famous phrase has it, "any colour so long as it's black". Continue reading the main story==“Start Quote== > It's a new way of looking at manufacturing... We could change things significantly, and save money” End Quote Ian Risk Innovation Works, EADS The moving production line came to be the emblem of the new manufacturing era, generating torrents of products and foods for a new mass market of consumers. But now 3D printing is beginning to change the mass production model that so dominated the 20th century. It is now called additive manufacturing, to distinguish it from old-fashioned subtractive manufacturing, that is the shaving away or moulding blocks of raw metal to make engineered components. You might have laughed if 100 years ago In Business had come back from Detroit convinced that Ford had successfully combined the idea of interchangeable parts from the American small arms industry with the moving line from the slaughterhouses of Chicago meat packers to create a revolutionary system of mass production that would be adopted almost everywhere else in business. But what Henry Ford started was no joke, and nor is 3D printing today. You get some sense of the potential from the pioneers at Loughborough University. 'Cost effective' Neil Hopkinson is senior lecturer in the Additive Manufacturing Research Group. His lab is full of impressive 3D printing machines, decked out with samples of the work they are trying out. [|Advertisement]
 * In pictures: 3D printing in action

3D printing plus crowd sourcing can make product design an accessible reality From demonstrating trial components, it does not take long before he is talking about the huge impact the process could have on the way businesses work. "It could make off-shore manufacturing half way round the world far less cost effective than doing it at home, if users can get the part they need printed off just round the corner at a 3D print shop on the high street. "Rather than stockpile spare parts and components in locations all over the world," he argues, "the designs could be costlessly stored in virtual computer warehouses waiting to be printed locally when required." Just across the Loughborough campus at the Civil and Building Engineering Department is Neil's colleague Richard Buswell, who shows me an extraordinary three-storey rig designed to "print" buildings. It squirts concrete out of a nozzle controlled by a computer, using the concrete just like a conventional printer would use ink, but in three dimensions, building up a structure layer by layer. The construction industry is rather conservative; many building sites still look much as they did in Roman times. Loughborough University's machines can even print larger structures such as building materials If Richard and his colleagues can prove it works at Loughborough - and convince potential users - additive manufacturing could change the industry. One potentially big change, in construction as in other activities, is to place designers right at the centre of activity. "Rapid manufacturing is all about putting the power of making things back in the hands of the architects," says Richard Buswell. "Young architects currently training are the ones who will take the techniques through into mainstream architecture." The EADS aircraft plant near Bristol is already exploiting this technology, and announced earlier this year that it had used [|additive layer manufacturing to produce a bike]. When I was there I saw machines turning out complex satellite parts which are lighter in weight and cheaper to make than conventionally-machined components. 'Disruptive' potential "It's new materials, it's new design processes, it's a new way of looking at manufacturing," says Ian Risk, head of Innovation Works at EADS in the UK. "We have had the processes of subtractive manufacturing built into our ways of working, the way we think about components from the outset. We could change things significantly, and save money." But first entrenched companies will have to wake up to the potential of the process. That may be an uncomfortable experience for most business people, trained and practiced in the mass production way of doing things. 3D printing puts the designer at the centre of the process when creating items like this bench Engineer Will Sillar is a partner at the Legerwood management consultancy which advises companies on 3D printing, something he believes has all sorts of disruptive potential: "Up to 50 percent of the working capital of a business is currently tied up in stock and working capital," he says. "Eliminate that, and the finance director is going to be the happiest man in the world." But introducing disruptive change is not an easy thing to do, warns Stuart Jackson, UK manager of the German company EOS, a leading maker of 3D manufacturing machines. "If you've spent years in your career to establish a manufacturing process, and then something comes along that could throw it out of the window, it's not necessarily attractive. "It needs to be an open mind to actually take it on board." 3D printing may have reached that vital threshold. Now it needs companies and people who are open-minded enough to turn upside down the traditional ways of making things and, eventually, of running businesses. [|In Business] **is on** [|BBC Radio 4] **on Thursday 2****8** **July at** **2030** **BST and** **Sunday 31** **July at 2****1****30 BST. You can also listen via the** [|BBC iPlayer] **or the** [|podcast]**.** =3D printing offers ability to print physical objects= Soon tables like these will be available to download and print in your home As Christmas fast approaches, millions will opt to spare themselves the crowded high street and instead settle down in front of the computer and do their shopping there. Yet buying online has always had one key disadvantage: you have to wait. Not only that, but the inability to touch a product, try it on, feel how heavy it is or do anything else you would do on your typical high street excursion prevents online shopping being the perfect experience. Continue reading the main story==“Start Quote== > It's a 3-D printer that prints out a kit of parts for another 3-D printer” End Quote Adrian Bowyer University of Bath But technology is now coming online that could allow you to receive your goods straight away. As the cost of 3D printing hardware begins to drop, bespoke, printable products may be about to hit the market. Fashion potential Freedom of Creation is a design and research company exploring the capabilities of what, in the industry, is known as rapid prototyping. Janne Kyttanen is the company's founder and creative director. "Imagine the potential of this for the fashion industry," he [|told Digital Planet on the BBC World Service]. "I can measure your body, in 3D, and I can make you perfectly fitting garments in the future without any sewing and stitching, making the needle and the thread obsolete." His company is now producing products for companies including Asics, Tommy Hilfiger and Hyundai. This hook was printed on a RepRap machine Away from the fashion world, 3D printing has many applications for the developing world. The ability to produce specially designed objects from a computer offers exciting possibilities for making vital tools in poorer, hard to reach areas. One scheme that is looking to capitalise in the technology is RepRap, short for Replicating Rapid Prototyping, which offers a cheap way of replicating objects - including the printer itself. "It's a 3D printer that prints out a kit of parts for another 3D printer," explained Dr Adrian Bowyer from the University of Bath. "It doesn't print every last single part. There are some which, at the moment, are a little bit difficult for the machine to manage - so things like electric motors and the electronics circuitry the machine can't do for itself - but it prints out a lot of the rest." Technological disruption In contrast to early 3-D printing machines which cost around £20,000, Dr Bowyer says a RepRap machine comes in at just £300. And the software and hardware specifications are all open source - meaning the machine can be duplicated freely. This low barrier to entry has piqued the interest of many entrepreneurs, keen to see how the technology can be effectively deployed. David Flanders, a technology enthusiast and blogger based in London, has been experimenting with ways to do good with the RepRap machine. "Imagine I print you a shoe. Your child grows, as they do. You take that shoe, you throw it back in the shredder - the shredder then processes the plastic. Continue reading the main story==Digital Planet== "You scale up your design 0.3% and you've got your child's next shoe. That's the type of imaginative excitement that we really are talking about." In the past, the ability to print, burn CDs or DVDs have been seen as a serious threat to intellectual property, making the act of piracy easier. 3D printing is no different. Public Knowledge, a Washington-based public interest group "working to defend citizens' rights in the emerging digital culture" referred to the advancements as the "next great technological disruption". In a paper entitled [|"It will be awesome if they don't screw it up"], Michael Weinberg wrote: "The ability to reproduce physical objects in small workshops and at home is potentially just as revolutionary as the ability to summon information from any source onto a computer screen." He is now calling on 3D printing entrepreneurs to remain vigilant of policy debates attempts as the technology develops into the mainstream.
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These 2 documents contain the instructions for your 2 final assignments for technology class. One project is the PowerPoint instructional/informational presentation. The other is the development of the VR "order" and budget.
 * __ INSTRUCTIONS FOR 2 FINAL PROJECT ASSIGNMENTS FOR TECHNOLOGY CLASS __**