Bone Recovery is Now 40% Faster With the Help of Osteoid

Have you ever experienced suffering a broken bone because of an accident or injury? Everyone knows what a broken bone means -- the terror of having to endure a heavy and awful cast. We all get the picture -- smells like a rotting meat and itches like a nasty rash after several days. But thanks to technology, all these horrible experiences will simply become a thing of the past.

And we are actually saying this because a Turkish student, in the person of Deniz Karashin took this revolutionary idea to the next step. 3D-printed casts, an idea that has been circulating for a couple of years now, could be the long-awaited answer in eliminating the odor and itch issues brought about by the traditional plaster casts. Karashin, winner of the 2014 Golden A'Design Award, designed the Osteoid, which is a cast prototype that uses tiny ultrasonic vibrations that speeds up bone healing time by 40 percent. The Osteoid medical cast offers a new way of addressing problems such as itchiness, bad smell due to the plaster's material, and patient's limitation to water exposure by introducing new technologies that will allow us to make custom-fitted, durable 3D-printed medical casts that will not itch or smell.

The Osteoid medical cast, with its design that leaves patches of skin open, makes it easy to administer the treatment using Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound (LIPUS). This bone stimulator system requires ultrasound leads to be placed on the skin, directly over the injured area of the bone. Osteoid's skeletal design enables ultrasonic drivers to be built directly into the cast.

Though the Osteoid medical cast is only a design prototype at this point in time, it's no surprise that in the next year or two, we will be seeing these kinds of medical solutions given the fast pace in 3D-printing technology.

A Quick Glance at Parrot's Most Compact Drone to Date Bebop Drone

Parrot, a French consumer drone maker, has unveiled its very own indoor/outdoor quadricopter that is packed with lots of awesome and hi-tech specs. Called the Bebop Drone, it sports a full HD video and cutting-edge image stabilization with a wide-angle 180-degree view. And just like with the company's other hobby drones, the Bebop Drone can be controlled using its associated app on iOS or Android smartphone or tablet.

One unique thing about this upcoming drone that separates it from others is its 14-megapixel fish-eye lens, which captures and streams live HD views of its flight to the device that you're using to control it. Another is its superb stability due to its several on-board sensors, a combination of a 3-axis accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer, which gives it a smooth flight even on windy conditions. It was considered as one of the most stable drone flights by far -- and it only weighs less than a pound. Flying the Bebop Drone, however, is pretty short because its flight time is 12 minutes only, even on a full battery charge.

It has the capability of capturing videos in 1080p full-HD resolution; whereas its previous model, the AR.Drone 2.0, can only do it in 720p. The Bebop Drone records videos to its 8GB internal memory in MP4 format (it has no microSD or SD card slot). Parrot's controller app, FreeFlight, allows you to control the flight via your iOS or Android device. With its upgraded version (3.0), which aims in giving a streamlined experience, still offers the same features found in the older version such as the ability to share videos or program flight paths.

Your iPhone or iPad communicates with the drone via Wi-Fi with a distance of up to 300 meters. Now, in case you'd like to go farther than that, you can get the Skycontroller. This new accessory from Parrot that serves as a dock for your smartphone or tablet, giving you controls on each side and a huge antenna on the top that will extend your wireless range at an unbelievable distance of 2 kilometers.

You can also connect virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift to the Skycontroller to pilot the drone's camera. If you move your head around while wearing the Oculus Rift, it will control the drone's camera, but not its movement. Before using the VR headset, make sure you're already familiar on how to use the Skycontroller since you won't be able to see it while your eyes are covered with it.

Here's a detailed summary of the Bebop Drone:

• 14 megapixel camera w/ fisheye lens
• 180-degree field view
• Full HD video recording
• 3-axis image stabilization system
• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• WiFi MIMO 2.4 & 5GHz
• GNSS : GPS + Glonass + Galileo
• Inertial unit: Gyroscope, Accelerometer,
  Magnetometer, Altimeter, Ultrasound, Vertical
  camera.
• 1,200mAh battery (12 minutes flight time)
• Removable hull
• iOS and Android smartphone / tablet support via FreeFlight app

This promising drone is expected to come out in the market later this year. With the Bebop Drone, Parrot puts higher-end features into a compact quadcopter that is sure to attract new and experienced pilots. As for the pricing, there's still no information from Parrot as to how much it will cost. Rough guess? It's something between $300-$400, an estimate that is considerably competitive with other consumer drones around.

Molten Metal 3D Printer: The Next Generation od 3D Printing

Home 3D printers made of plastic such as the Cubify Cube and the MakerBot Replicator build objects by laying down layers of melted plastic filament. They awaken people's originality and creativity by turning ideas into reality by allowing them to create original and custom-designed objects. However, we have to admit it -- no matter how original or awesome some things may be, it's still plastic. Plastic is ideal for industrial prototypes, low-cost toys, and tools. It's not the the best material for precise parts, or polished durable objects.

During the Maker Faire held in New York City, a father and son attempted to create the next level of 3D printing by using molten metals such as aluminum and copper instead of plastic. Scott and Zachary Vader, debuted their prototype machine, called the Mark 1, can be tagged as the "inkjet printer for metals."

These units will be custom-built works and progress and will likely be sold at a staggering price range of $20,000 to $100,000. Zachary Vader told Tom's Guide that they intend to make a cheaper version of this, which would be priced below $10,000 in the next year. However, he said that there's no finality yet on what it will look like.

Soon, "maker" inventors will be able to build their very own machines in small workshops using 3D printers. Although metal printing is now a reality, it's still not suitable for heavy-duty industrial parts. Selective laser sintering is one of the most common process in metal printing, which involves laying down a layer of metal powder and then heats it with a laser so that the metal melts and flows together. But according to Zachary Vader, the objects produced aren't ideal for building machine parts because they are slightly porous.

That's why the Vaders developed a different metal printing technology, which is more like the inkjet printers that inspired 3D printing in the first place. Their printing process starts with an electric furnace up top that melts the metal ingots -- a process that is considerably energy efficient. The printer runs off a regular wall outlet. The furnace is enclosed in a glossy-black cube with the family's name printed in bold. According to mechanical engineer Zachary Vader, the liquid metal jet printing or direct-to-metal printing process -- uses magnetism to propel melted metal onto the printer bed. But for metals like aluminum, the printer will have to apply an electrical charge to the metal. Its mechanism is similar to some inkjet printers, which apply an electrical charge to droplets of ink and use magnetic force to direct them onto a sheet of paper. Cheap inkjet printers can propel them through thousands of nozzles, thousands of times per second, instead squirting out one drop at a time. The Vaders' device can likewise have thousands of nozzles and run close to or even faster than the speed of an inkjet. Plastic printers today have just one nozzle, and at most about a half dozen, that trace out a design.

And since the electrical conductivity of the metal is the key factor to the printing mechanism, it may require some reconfiguration of its original process when adding new materials. Zachary believes copper, silver, and gold are materials that are fairly easy to add.

One of the main benefits of 3D metal printing is that it can make a single, unique object that normally could only be produced by mass manufacturing. This will allow companies to produce products in smaller quantities or prototypes in the quantities of a hundred or even just ten. It could also lower the cost of custom metal items such as prosthetic or medical implants.

It would also be possible to create new types of lightweight metal components with metal printing. Instead of creating solid pieces of plastic, 3D printers can print out a honeycomb-like internal structure to save on weight, as well as material. The Vader printer can most likely do the same thing on metal.

With all those reasons and benefits people all over the world would get in the near future, there's no doubt that 3D metal printing will be a part of almost half of the manufacturing world.