It was the goal of a researcher Amit Zoran of the MIT Media Lab to print a fully functioning musical instrument through the use of a "Computer Assisted Drawing" or CAD drawing. CAD drawings are drawings that are made through a computer. The most commonly used programs include AutoCAD, Google Sketchup and others. It seems that this project was finally realized using an Objet Connex500 3D printer. The entire printing took 15 hours and was assembled through 4 main sections. There were some flaws within the design and still need to be ironed out, but the overall sound was supposed to be quite good. There is a Youtube video on the site, which is worth watching.
Just imagine, you may not buy your next instrument, but print it out. It will require a simple CAD program and a 3D printer.
What next will a 3D printer do? Thoughts? Is this the future? Will we eventually place orders online and be able to print it out the next second?
5 comments:
Wow!!! I think i just realized how awesome the future will be. A 3D printer!!! I wonder how this cad program works.
Having to print something for 15 hours and then assembling it sure sounds like a lot trouble to go through when you can just go to a music store and buy the instrument, though I don't know the cost effectiveness of buying the machine and necessary materials compared to buying the actual instrument.
Speaking of materials, what exactly was the material that the printer used? Does it need to be treated specially, like you can't drop it in a pool of water or it deteriorates? I'm assuming that the structure of the flute is sound and feels pretty close to, if not just like, a real flute. And is this something that a regular, ordinary person with no experience with computers would be able to do, because it's more or less like trying to put together a bunk bed from Ikea?
I don't know how long we'll have to wait before this becomes a perfect science that is widely available to everyone and lands in everyone's houses, but when it does get there, I can only imagine what they'll end up applying this to next. I guess that goes to show how far technology is getting and how it can be adapted to things you wouldn't normally think it could be used for.
Melissa, This is just the start!! This could just be the foundation for what could be an incredible invention.
Or this could be a failure. Everything is still in the beginning stages.
I can see a whole lot of "interesting" stuff being printed through this 3D printer. I hope this doesn't work out in the end, there goes another few thousand blue collar jobs and hundred famous instrument makers.
If they have time for this, why don't they make the more practical teleporter and warp drive. Much more convenient.
I would like to point out that making instruments is an art. There is a very good reason why violin makers consider machine-made violins "violin-shaped objects". Violins have a very labor-intensive process in its creation including, but not limited to, the different qualities of the wood and the different shapes. Believe it or not, a small difference creates a very large difference in sound quality. It would be very difficult for anyone to duplicate this in CAD. There is not much cause for fear that instrument makers would be out of a job, especially since only instrument makers have the specific knowledge in what exactly goes into each instrument.
My guess is that this would just be a small thing that just comes and goes for the instrument world. Remember, musicians do not look at price but at the sound quality.
However, I believe that this would be an interesting process for other products, though it might destroy more jobs.
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