Peter1469
05-06-2017, 05:15 PM
3-D Printing the Way to Bionic Humans (https://www.insidescience.org/news/3-d-printing-way-bionic-humans)
3-D printing is changing more than just traditional manufacturing. It may change us.
Wearable technology may soon be at your fingertips -- literally. Researchers have developed a pressure sensor that can be 3-D printed directly on your hand. The device, sensitive enough to feel a beating pulse, is made from soft, stretchy silicone that conforms to the curves of your fingertip.
It's a step toward a more seamless integration of human and machine, said Michael McAlpine (https://sites.google.com/view/mcalpineresearchgroup), a materials scientist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. His team didn't print the device on a real hand yet -- just an artificial one. "But," he said, "it sets the stage for future work in 3-D printing electronic devices directly on the body."
Someday, that could mean technology evocative of the cyborgs and bionic humans of science fiction. In the nearer term, 3-D printed gadgets on and in the body could aid medical treatment, health monitoring and surgery.
This 3-D printing approach, detailed today (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201701218/full) in the journal Advanced Materials, could produce gadgets without the cleanrooms and fancy equipment needed to make most devices today, McAlpine said. And as 3-D printers become cheaper and smaller, they might even become the Swiss army knives of the future.
Read the rest at the link.
3-D printing is changing more than just traditional manufacturing. It may change us.
Wearable technology may soon be at your fingertips -- literally. Researchers have developed a pressure sensor that can be 3-D printed directly on your hand. The device, sensitive enough to feel a beating pulse, is made from soft, stretchy silicone that conforms to the curves of your fingertip.
It's a step toward a more seamless integration of human and machine, said Michael McAlpine (https://sites.google.com/view/mcalpineresearchgroup), a materials scientist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. His team didn't print the device on a real hand yet -- just an artificial one. "But," he said, "it sets the stage for future work in 3-D printing electronic devices directly on the body."
Someday, that could mean technology evocative of the cyborgs and bionic humans of science fiction. In the nearer term, 3-D printed gadgets on and in the body could aid medical treatment, health monitoring and surgery.
This 3-D printing approach, detailed today (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201701218/full) in the journal Advanced Materials, could produce gadgets without the cleanrooms and fancy equipment needed to make most devices today, McAlpine said. And as 3-D printers become cheaper and smaller, they might even become the Swiss army knives of the future.
Read the rest at the link.