In case you missed it (ICYMI), here are some recent trending news stories on 3D printing:
A cancer patient in Spain has received a 3D printed titanium sternum and rib implant, after suffering from a type of tumor that grows in and around the rib cage. The patient was discharged 12 days after the surgery.
Trials are being conducted to perform 3D printing aboard ships, in order to create autonomous vehicles needed quickly for specific missions.
A Chinese company has commemorated the end of World War II by using a 3D printer to create ice cream molds shaped like former Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo’s face. Tojo, the person responsible for the bombing of Pearl Harbor, was arrested after the war and was sentenced to death for Imperial Japanese war crimes.
Video courtesy of Reuters, via The Japan Times.
A group of lock-picking and security enthusiasts published a set of CAD files online that allow anyone with a 3D printer to make their own master keys for TSA-approved locks. Soon afterward, Internet users began uploading photos and videos of themselves with their homemade keys.
Prefer to sort your Skittles by color before you snack? A member of HackADay.io, “a platform for people who like to build things,” has 3D printed an automatic Skittles sorting machine equipped with a sensor that groups the candies into color-specific trays.
Finally, a Yale University engineer has developed handheld, shape-shifting cubes intended to help visually impaired people find their way. The user’s position in the environment determines the shape of the wireless device. The top half of the cube twists to direct users toward their next destination and extends forward to indicate the distance to reach it. Rather than look at the device, as with a smartphone, users know where to go by feeling the changing shapes.
