Re: [rp-ml] free STL Files and other things we wish for in the new year

Good-looking, easy to use & affordable Stereo-Viewing standards &
accessories for TV and computers -- It would be a drop-kick to put a
second camera into a cameraphone. The Stereo end-Viewer is the critical
part for success, in my opinion. Maybe slightly more tricky to control
is inter-ocular 3D scene view convergence in a camera-phone. Digital
cameras are tending toward "pinhole" cameras with "infinite" focus-depth
and hence no focus-plane. 3D geometry from-Stereo is yet a bit less
robust. Google "Street-View" is what we used to call QuickTime-VR and
has been used as a basis for the design of some computer games
("Zork-II: Nemesis" -- I worked on it.) It requires a motorized camera
tripod rotator head synchronized over an interface to the camera frame
control. How far are we from LIDAR in a camera-phone? Is a DVD-RW
laser big enough for LIDAR?

Honestly, retail companies like Looxis will build glass blocks from 3D
data files you supply. Why not set up a custom portrait-sculpture
franchise in tandem with a company like Looxis? Minolta makes 3D
scanners. They only need to evolve to the
Digital-SLR camera scale before you have a lot of consumer-created 3D
input content looking for the output medium.

--Stewart Dickson (c) 2010 (Some rights reserved)

G. Sachs wrote:
> So what kinds of "great" things would consumers do with their
> dirt-cheap RP machines? What they do with their studio grade still and
> video cameras? What they do with their Cray-supercomputer class
> computers (which I would have killed for in the 70's)? No, I think you
> may have too much optimism and faith for how people end up using
> powerful tools (like TV) and how long their interest in such things
> lasts. My guess is that the 'attention span' for cheap RP machines
> would be about 1-month (in the 21st century) - then on to the next
> 'cheap thrill'. Cheap is not what is really needed to get increased
> interest in RP - new visions about what is possible, especially in
> terms of creating (real, meaningful and well paying) jobs, may be much
> more important. I'm kind of tired of cheap thrills (and conferences),
> it may be time for everyone to get back to work and really 'do
> something' (as Steve Jobs might say).
>
> G. Sachs
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* George W. Hart <george@georgehart.com>
> *To:* rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi
> *Sent:* Mon, January 4, 2010 1:57:09 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [rp-ml] Detroit Bomber STL File
>
> To extend Marshall's point, I'll opine that it wouldn't necessarily
> be a bad thing if some killer app involving human sexuality is what it
> takes to get the economies of scale jump started, so that RP machine
> prices drop into the consumer appliance price range.
>
> (But let's *not* brainstorm ideas for such apps here on this forum.)
>
> George
> http://www.georgehart.com
>
> P.S. My coolest RP sculpture yet: (kid-safe, don't worry)
> http://www.georgehart.com/sculpture/ball-and-chain.html
>
>
>
> Marshall Burns wrote:
> > Very interesting comment, Greg. Given the history of cave drawing,
> marble sculpture, painting on canvas, the printing press, photography,
> video tape, the Internet, and every other communication medium known
> to man and woman, there is no question that the popular advent of
> fabbers will come along with applications in pornography, both legal
> and illegal. In ten or 15 years, we’ll probably have prosecutors
> across the country arresting high school kids for 3D sexting. (Don’t
> trust the timing of my predictions; they’ve been dreadfully off before.)
>
>
>
Received on Tue Jan 05 00:30:05 2010