Rapid Prototype Blog

Archive for August, 2010

For a class I am doing, I need something that I can reverse engineer. Something that is small and pretty simple. I just need some ideas to get me going, it has to be mechanical so if anyone has some ideas, it would be appreciated.

the rapid prototyper making my papula

Using an Arduino, a servo, an optical sensor and a 16×2 LCD screen to create a rapid prototype device which will track a cumulative count (a count occurs each time the opto is interrupted) and a servo to simulate usage. Check out www.nyccnc.com for the code and vendor links.

Some more movies for Pro/Engineer Wildfire 3.0. This movie is a long one, but a good one about reverse engineering and freeform surfacing. This shows how scalable Pro/Engineer is and how many different things can be accomplished with this one CAD tool.

Google Tech Talks March, 24 2008 ABSTRACT Yang Li – RESEARCH SCIENTIST Pervasive or ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) applications can support people’s everyday activities in the physical world by leveraging advances in sensor technologies and computing infrastructures. Designing ubicomp applications is challenging because our everyday activities are more complex, dynamic and less structured than the tasks supported by traditional desktop computing. Ubicomp design is difficult, time-consuming, and requires a high level of technical expertise, especially with sensor technologies. To address this, I created a set of rapid prototyping tools and frameworks. My early work with Topiary introduces high-level abstractions, such as maps and scenarios, for designers to easily model location contexts and specify location-based behaviors. Topiary also allows a design to be tested in the field via a Wizard of Oz approach, without deploying a location sensor infrastructure. My recent work is focused on activity-based ubicomp prototyping, a process for enabling long-term activities (such as keeping fit)—a larger unit for design than the tasks that are the focus of traditional design. To support such a process, I created ActivityDesigner, a system that allows designers to create functional prototypes of ubicomp applications based on field observations, and easily deploy and test these prototypes in situ. Speaker: Yang Li – RESEARCH SCIENTIST Yang Li is a research associate in the Computer …

See how to turn 3D CAD data into color 3D models and prototypes in just hours. Introducing the world’s first automated color 3D printer.

Google Tech Talks March, 24 2008 ABSTRACT Yang Li – RESEARCH SCIENTIST Pervasive or ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) applications can support people’s everyday activities in the physical world by leveraging advances in sensor technologies and computing infrastructures. Designing ubicomp applications is challenging because our everyday activities are more complex, dynamic and less structured than the tasks supported by traditional desktop computing. Ubicomp design is difficult, time-consuming, and requires a high level of technical expertise, especially with sensor technologies. To address this, I created a set of rapid prototyping tools and frameworks. My early work with Topiary introduces high-level abstractions, such as maps and scenarios, for designers to easily model location contexts and specify location-based behaviors. Topiary also allows a design to be tested in the field via a Wizard of Oz approach, without deploying a location sensor infrastructure. My recent work is focused on activity-based ubicomp prototyping, a process for enabling long-term activities (such as keeping fit)—a larger unit for design than the tasks that are the focus of traditional design. To support such a process, I created ActivityDesigner, a system that allows designers to create functional prototypes of ubicomp applications based on field observations, and easily deploy and test these prototypes in situ. Speaker: Yang Li – RESEARCH SCIENTIST Yang Li is a research associate in the Computer …

(Note: This version is available in High Definition but the audio sync is a little off. If that kind of thing drives you nuts then watch the ‘Wide Screen’ version instead.) This is a model of a house that I built (in real life) a number of years ago. I wanted to see if I could rebuild it with what plans, photos and memories that I still have. I built the deck model years ago using Ray Dream Designer and Virtus Walkthrough (neither program is around anymore) to visualize what the deck would look like before I built it (in real life) as an addition to the house. I built the deck model to scale and it imported (.dxf) nicely into SketchUp after all these years. That was the starting point of this recent modeling project. I did the time lapse sequence at the end to showcase SketchUps ability to set time and date for determining location of shadows. I also used its watermark (picture overlay) capability to see if I could line up the angle and lens settings of the camera snapshots that I had taken back in the day. I think it worked well. Incidentally, I also composed and produced the accompanying soundtrack over an excellent beat by Zajo called “loop39.wav” from Freesound (www.freesound.org) used under a Creative Commons sampling license.

Rapid Prototype Testing of a longer tag inlay that lays flat in the track. In addition, an alternate reader antenna location was tested. The results of the two tests and the results are shown on this short video that demonstrate the solution design capabilities at ODIN.