Personal Fabrication

We present a new approach to rapid prototyping of functional objects, such as the body of a head-mounted display. The key idea is to save 3D printing time by automatically substituting sub-volumes with standard building blocks'in our case Lego bricks. When making the body for a head-mounted display, for example, getting the optical path right is paramount. Users thus mark the lens mounts as "high-resolution" to indicate that these should later be 3D printed. faBrickator then 3D prints these parts. It also generates instructions that show users how to create everything else from Lego bricks. If users iterate on the design later, faBrickator offers even greater benefit as it allows re-printing only the elements that changed. We validated our system at the example of three 3D models of functional objects. On average, our system fabricates objects 2.44 times faster than traditional 3D printing while requiring only 14 minutes of manual assembly.

In diesem Beitrag wird ein Konzept für ein mobiles interaktives Personal-Fabrication Tool vorgeschlagen, das die Vor-Ort-Reparatur von beschädigten Alltagsgegenständen als Mixed Reality Anwendung realisiert. Das Toolkit (MixRepair) ermöglicht das Einscannen von beschädigten Gegenständen und rekonstruiert die fehlenden Teile als virtuelles Ersatzteil. Das Ersatzteil kann mit den Händen und menübasiert nachbearbeitet werden. Die Manipulation mit den Händen erfolgt entweder physikbasiert oder über interpretierte Gesten, die Menüs über Mid-Air-Touch. Das Einpassen des virtuellen Ersatzteils in den realen Alltagsgegenstand wird als virtuelles Overlay mit einer optischen See-Through-Brille möglich. Final soll das nachbearbeitete virtuelle Ersatzteil als STL exportiert und auf einem 3D-Drucker produziert werden.

Maker and DIY cultures, as well as the trend towards personal fabrication have gained recent visibility in HCI research. While first reflecting on makers as a new user and " social actor " , current rhetoric has shifted towards the maker movement's potential for empowerment and democratization. By focusing on places and the organization of personal fabrication we are drawing lines between amateur vs. professional, and home vs. work settings as well as leisure vs. educational motivations. Here we discuss and map out the characteristics of semi-professional places for making in the light of a small study from a hackathon event.

While personal fabrication tools, such as laser cutters and milling machines, are intended for construction, we are exploring their use for destruction. We present a series of games that result in valuable physical objects being de-stroyed—objects owned by the players. Interestingly, we found that we can design these games to be desirable to play, despite the loss of the object, by instead producing social value. As part of a user study, twelve students played a destructive game in which a laser cutter cut up their own money bills. Surprisingly, 8 out of 12 participants would play again. They shared their post-game stories with us.

This is an interview with Massimo Menichinelli, founder of the on-line platform openp2pdesign.org. The interview deals with topics connected to innovations in the fields of design and-metadesign, with a particular attention towards open source and p2p dynamics. The interview takes into account the more recent developments in the fields of DIY design and personal fabrication, questioning about their consequences in terms of social and economical transformations.

Keywords:

Open Source Design, Open Design, P2P design, peer-to-peer design, personal fabrication, desktop manufacturing, co-design, service design, innovation