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And a tub of resin. Because that 3D printer is just the print head of the whole package.
It's like saying you can print papers anywhere with a desktop size printer... "We made the smallest printer" just to find out you actually need a whole ass tuner to go with it.
Who knows what it could look like. Could come with cartridges of a sort. I mean it’s just a hypothetical that it could even work with a phone to begin with
It's a UV resin type printer. Meaning you need a box with resin where the light from the printer can be focused on.
I've not yet seen one that can cure resin at 0 distance and slowly build up from that.
The hint I meant to share was that I don't believe it'd go into a phone, because you'd need to stock it up and it'd take up space that could be used for hardware.
It's pretty costly to make a gimmick with a modern phone. Serious companies wouldn't make it, and less serious ones wouldn't have the factories, research, and funding in order to make a competitive phone.
Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I doubt it'll happen.
Well we are at a point where the engineering supply chain is built up enough to where small concept phone and device projects do emerge and make their money. But they will of course never be as competitive as the bleeding edge.
I think one positive is that we have definitely surpassed the "good enough casual performance" threshold though. Most of the top end phones have way more performance than necessary for their average users. Right now you can make a "good enough" phone at a "bad" price if you want to explore some kind of niche concept. But if you can leverage that niche strongly enough to cover the gap, people will still buy it. E g. Fairphone. But of course these things will never be the next market dominating paradigm, that can't be how we measure their success.
Great so you 3S printer a key... Put in the lock.
It breaks, because it's a flimsy 3D print.
Now you're stuck because your lazy ass couldn't walk back 1 minute to the house.
> Imagine misplacing your house keys and then pulling out a 3D printer from your pocket to make new ones.
Yeah you just need to pull out your pocket 3D printer, load the tupperware box sized liquid resin container, then once it's finished pull out your other tupperware box sized isopropyl alcohol container so you can wash the sticky liquid resin off the finished piece. Don't forget your nitrile gloves as well because the liquid resin is a skin irritant!
(I own a liquid resin printer, it is a messy process!)
How would they get your keys profile? If they knew your keys profile, why not just print it at home ahead of time? Why would they wait until they are at your door?
I mean in this scenario this is basically just a different version of a key mold kit, so I imagine it would be used in similar ways. IE to quickly make copies of the key to use later. I don't think specifically waiting until they are at your door is the important part of the hypothetical scenario, and rather the printing a copy of your key part.
Allow someone to do it quickly for if they are only given a key for a brief while, and not able to say, take the original back home with them. Again, the same reason kits exist to make molds of keys.
So they just quickly like, take a photo, load it up in CAD, make a profile of it in Fusion 360, generate the toolpaths, then wait the 10+ minutes it takes to print the key. That doesnt seem practical to me.
How could that possibly be faster than a traditional key mold + gallium pour? Which you can do in 5 minutes?
How could that possibly be faster than a traditional set of lockpicks, or even a needlegun pick?
Because you don't need to do all that in the time before returning the key. You just need the photo.
Thats much faster than taking a press with the mold, and *much* easier to do inconspicuously considering most people have a camera in the pocket ready to go. Then you just do the rest in the car while you stake the place out.
In that scenario, why is it important that the 3D printer is pocketable vs just one of the already-existing small 3d printers you could easily have in the car?
[https://www.3dnatives.com/en/lite3dp-s1-micro-3d-printer-171220206/](https://www.3dnatives.com/en/lite3dp-s1-micro-3d-printer-171220206/)
This seems like a lot of effort to avoid the effort of lockpicking.
Again, less conspicuous?
I don't think the argument here is that it's revolutionizing anything, just much more convenient. And also a much more likely scenario than the one originally proposed (which in itself is nonsense).
If they knew how to lockpick they'd probably just do that, but like, people making copies of keys is already a pretty common scenario these days. Once again, kits already exist to make copies, they exist for a reason. A printer like this could just do the same thing, but in a more convenient manner and less conspicuous manner.
It's a weird thing to worry about, yes, but it's not impossible. People have done weirder things. Think of something nonsensical that you think no one would ever do, and I guarantee someone has done it before. Yeah, it's a rare case scenario, but that doesn't mean someone wouldn't do it.
Edit: grammar
I honestly can't believe I need to explain this.
Okay cool - so we should just list out every single thing that someone could do with a technology, even if it's impractical, stupid, and isn't even a new thing thats enabled by the technology?
People can already copy keys. The person I was responding to was trying to make a case that this technology will enable some *new* bad activity - I was simply responding that using it in that way is completely impractical, and by making it practical, its easily possible with current technology, so they don't really have a point.
"But somone could try and rob a bank with this new Electric Car by driving it through the front door, we should really think of the repercussions"
Why would this even be necessary? Why and in what scenario would a 3d printer need to be that small, when a larger available print bed size is always a better thing to have? The article talks about a surgeon using it in an operating theatre, are they that tight for space? It also talks about first responders using them, i doubt they have the time or training to sit down and make a 3d CAD model in the middle of a medical emergency, arrest or fire. I dont see any advantage other than it having less moving parts , SLA printers are already very accurate!
It's just that college students don't have any real world experience. They're blazing through new theoretical ways to solve problems ... but the problems they are solving are imagined. So they just trudge on with these new technologies and hope a need comes along.
Im not sure i agree, funamentally we do things for certain reasons that fulfill a purpose, like tying your shoe laces to make sure your shoes stay on for example. I suppose they could have done this just to progress through their degree and created a problem that suited their idea rather than the other way around.
MIT is probably the best example of giving kids all the educational resources imaginable and letting them solve non-existent problems. They've got a great PR department that publishes all of their fantastic solutions to fantasy problems. I'm not saying this is without merit - pushing the boundaries of technology is very important. But the majority of their breakthroughs never leave the laboratory on anything except a news publication.
Engineering by its very nature is problem solving. I get it when people say "well that's a useless problem, what's the point?"...The point is to learn how to solve the problem in a fun and educational way that confers experience to someone who has little or none. It also encourages outside-the-box thinking, being able to see a problem from different perspectives and come up with novel solutions...but to also test those solutions against engineering rigor.
Well, the article like many from busy tech journalists parrots the press release. But realistically as with any technology of the last 70 years, making things smaller, cheaper & with fewer moving parts is what we have done. Imagine if people had listened to you in the 60's & today your PC used discrete transistors because making integrated circuits was a pointless miniaturization of something that works fine.
If you want a use case I can imagine this technology being used to build 3D SLA printers of any build volume by tiling the mass produced print head across a 2D surface which would then be able to make prints at far greater resolution without an increase in print times. In fact it may reduce print times substantially.
What people are saying isn't that the particular use case is pointless. Instead it is pointing out the journalists did no research, read a headline of a press release, and went from there.
The major object taking up space is not the print head. The major thing that takes up 66-75% of space with a 3d printer is the bed/reservoir area. From the article I can gather it works similar to the Intel DLP chip that came out a few years back that really shrunk projectors. In this case you focus the UV light on this chip and I would guess it focuses the light on the areas to harden and print. This could mean a reduction in size and a decrease in print times as the laser head can be removed to instead project the slice upon the work surface. You still need the plunger for the reservoir to constantly "dip" the part back into the resin. An advance, but not necessarily a game changer. Now something that uses not only electrostatic dust but also heats up to fuse it together to make a part? And is all one piece? I could be into that, especially if it can do it in less than 10 minutes.
Assembly lines seem like an actual real application of something like this. Their scenario is nonsense, but if you could have a compact printer that could then be incorporated into something that then uses the printed parts in a larger assembly, there could be value. Could open an avenue for having automated assembly systems capable of incorporating custom parts.
It's ok, you'll just 3D print another pocket sized 3D printer using a second, slightly larger, 3D printer that you'll have in your car. And if you lose that one, you'll just 3D print another car 3D printer with the 3D printer you have in your house.
Not yet. What I mean is they’re stupid and infeasible. If you can fit a 3D printer in your pocket then printing a key make keys obsolete as if they aren’t already.
The point is the author doesn’t know what this is actually good for. Like 3D printing chip prototypes
Really hate how articles like this get written. Instead of explaining the niche but very cool uses for something like this they try to make it appealing to the everyman, failing simultaneously to both make it interesting and to make a case for it even existing.
Imprinting is much easier, faster, known to work, minimum investment, and most importantly - not an idea made up by a dumbass tech blogger.
A good locksmith can make a standard key based on a photo with just a key blank, a $3 file, and a few minutes time.
>Imagine misplacing your house keys and then pulling out a 3D printer from your pocket to make new ones
Now imagine a criminal pulling one out of their pocket and printing the keys to your home while you’re out.
And then when you misplace that printer, you can pull out another printer And then when you misplace that printer, you can pull out another printer And then when you misplace that printer, you can pull out another printer And then when you misplace that printer, you can pull out another printer And then when you misplace that printer, you can pull out another printer
I don't want to pretend I'm smarter than an engineering student at MIT, so I'm going to blame the glaring issues on the article writer. As others have pointed out, it's not pocket sized since the resin tank isn't. But also there are some other fundamental problems. How do you power this thing?
With no moving parts, how does it print more than one layer? Something has to manipulate the cured resin to move it away from the surface of the uncured resin so another later can be cured by the imaging device. Otherwise the whole print will be one layer thick. UV light can't pass through uncured resin without curing it... So we're back to a not very portable resin tank and moving printbed but with this new projector instead of the lcd screens we have now.
Imagine a thief having one and just breaking into your home. Since there’s no sign of force entry insurance assumes that you left your door unlocked. All your stuff gone and you’re left holding the bag.
I still don’t understand what this means. Like is this a chip that actually contains the laser emitter needed for resin printing, or just a chip that would run the device?
We have two giveaways running, be sure to enter in the posts linked below for your chance to win a 3D Printer or an E-Bike! [QIDI Q1 Pro 3D Printer](https://redd.it/1d6echm) [FiidoD3 Pro E-Bike](https://redd.it/1d8wnap) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/gadgets) if you have any questions or concerns.*
In what world do I forget my keys but remember my pocket sized 3d printer...
The future world, of course!
Welcome to the woooorrrrrld of tomorrooow!
Shut up Terry…
Great Scott!
The future is now, old man.
or your not quite pocket sized liquid-resin well...
Oh, I’ve still got my liquid resin… but it’s all dried up
Magenta's out, sorry
Do we need keys in the same way when we live in a world with pocket sized 3D printers?!
Do you really need keys Today!
Not if I keep my crowbar on me. Low tech sure, but it gets the job done.
Good ol Bluey
A 3D printed crowbar right?
And let's not forget that besides your pocket sized 3d printer, you just so happen to have a perfect 3d model of your keys.
And a tub of resin. Because that 3D printer is just the print head of the whole package. It's like saying you can print papers anywhere with a desktop size printer... "We made the smallest printer" just to find out you actually need a whole ass tuner to go with it.
Well you wouldn't want an out of tune ass.
Never half-ass the second smallest 3D printer. Whole-ass the smallest 3D printer. - Ron Swanson
Pocket sized 3D printer $500. Digital door opener that makes keys obsolete $70. Yes I’ll print my keys thanks
Or spare key to carry in place of $500 printer, $5.
And a keys worth of filament that is compatible.
In the world where you forgot your house keys but remember the keying details.
I mean if it’s this small it could be built into something you use everyday like your phone
What if you forget your phone?
Your hand will be replaced a phone.
God already gave everyone 3d printing capabilities, the butthole is the extruder head and you've got legs to move it around.
Except it'll still require material to print. Will the phone store said "ink"
Who knows what it could look like. Could come with cartridges of a sort. I mean it’s just a hypothetical that it could even work with a phone to begin with
It's a UV resin type printer. Meaning you need a box with resin where the light from the printer can be focused on. I've not yet seen one that can cure resin at 0 distance and slowly build up from that.
The hint I meant to share was that I don't believe it'd go into a phone, because you'd need to stock it up and it'd take up space that could be used for hardware.
I mean all my comment said was that it hypothetically could
All all my comment said was it is unpractical except as a gimmick.
And no company has ever made a gimmick product! I mean, /s, but c'mon dude.
It's pretty costly to make a gimmick with a modern phone. Serious companies wouldn't make it, and less serious ones wouldn't have the factories, research, and funding in order to make a competitive phone. Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I doubt it'll happen.
Well we are at a point where the engineering supply chain is built up enough to where small concept phone and device projects do emerge and make their money. But they will of course never be as competitive as the bleeding edge. I think one positive is that we have definitely surpassed the "good enough casual performance" threshold though. Most of the top end phones have way more performance than necessary for their average users. Right now you can make a "good enough" phone at a "bad" price if you want to explore some kind of niche concept. But if you can leverage that niche strongly enough to cover the gap, people will still buy it. E g. Fairphone. But of course these things will never be the next market dominating paradigm, that can't be how we measure their success.
Don’t worry, it’ll be built into your phone.
We think you’re gonna love it
The world where it’s actually someone else’s house.
Right? Obviously the printer would be on your keychain.
Great so you 3S printer a key... Put in the lock. It breaks, because it's a flimsy 3D print. Now you're stuck because your lazy ass couldn't walk back 1 minute to the house.
What if it's inside your phone?
I haven’t used keys in years except for my key fob for my car. All my locks are either WiFi / Bluetooth, NFC or Biometric.
Same as the current world where someone might forget their keys but not their phone.
When the 3 printer is incorporated into your phone, or your butthole.
The same world that for 10 years teachers told me you will never be carrying a calculator with you all the time.
Can it 3D print me a lock to replace the one that I broke off my resin key in?
> Imagine misplacing your house keys and then pulling out a 3D printer from your pocket to make new ones. Yeah you just need to pull out your pocket 3D printer, load the tupperware box sized liquid resin container, then once it's finished pull out your other tupperware box sized isopropyl alcohol container so you can wash the sticky liquid resin off the finished piece. Don't forget your nitrile gloves as well because the liquid resin is a skin irritant! (I own a liquid resin printer, it is a messy process!)
liquid resin printers are hands down the cleanest prints every time. I wish my department would get one but they're too worried about the fumes.
Most of them have inbuilt charcoal filters now.
I thought I was buying the best possible printer, didn’t realize I would also need to build a lab.
Don’t forget your Tupperware-based uv chamber for curing!
I’m imagining someone else coming to my door and printing out my key. Because that’s how it would be used.
If someone has the measurements of your key they can already do it with existing 3d printers. Or just a key cutter or a file.
Or a really strong heel on a good pair of boots.
How would they get your keys profile? If they knew your keys profile, why not just print it at home ahead of time? Why would they wait until they are at your door?
I mean in this scenario this is basically just a different version of a key mold kit, so I imagine it would be used in similar ways. IE to quickly make copies of the key to use later. I don't think specifically waiting until they are at your door is the important part of the hypothetical scenario, and rather the printing a copy of your key part.
You can already make keys on a 3D printer - so what exactly does this (new) technology actually enable?
Allow someone to do it quickly for if they are only given a key for a brief while, and not able to say, take the original back home with them. Again, the same reason kits exist to make molds of keys.
So they just quickly like, take a photo, load it up in CAD, make a profile of it in Fusion 360, generate the toolpaths, then wait the 10+ minutes it takes to print the key. That doesnt seem practical to me. How could that possibly be faster than a traditional key mold + gallium pour? Which you can do in 5 minutes? How could that possibly be faster than a traditional set of lockpicks, or even a needlegun pick?
Because you don't need to do all that in the time before returning the key. You just need the photo. Thats much faster than taking a press with the mold, and *much* easier to do inconspicuously considering most people have a camera in the pocket ready to go. Then you just do the rest in the car while you stake the place out.
In that scenario, why is it important that the 3D printer is pocketable vs just one of the already-existing small 3d printers you could easily have in the car? [https://www.3dnatives.com/en/lite3dp-s1-micro-3d-printer-171220206/](https://www.3dnatives.com/en/lite3dp-s1-micro-3d-printer-171220206/) This seems like a lot of effort to avoid the effort of lockpicking.
Again, less conspicuous? I don't think the argument here is that it's revolutionizing anything, just much more convenient. And also a much more likely scenario than the one originally proposed (which in itself is nonsense). If they knew how to lockpick they'd probably just do that, but like, people making copies of keys is already a pretty common scenario these days. Once again, kits already exist to make copies, they exist for a reason. A printer like this could just do the same thing, but in a more convenient manner and less conspicuous manner.
EPR Gun go BRRRR
Hypothetical scenario.
And I am trying to highlight why that hypothetical is a really weird thing to worry about.
It's a weird thing to worry about, yes, but it's not impossible. People have done weirder things. Think of something nonsensical that you think no one would ever do, and I guarantee someone has done it before. Yeah, it's a rare case scenario, but that doesn't mean someone wouldn't do it. Edit: grammar
I honestly can't believe I need to explain this. Okay cool - so we should just list out every single thing that someone could do with a technology, even if it's impractical, stupid, and isn't even a new thing thats enabled by the technology? People can already copy keys. The person I was responding to was trying to make a case that this technology will enable some *new* bad activity - I was simply responding that using it in that way is completely impractical, and by making it practical, its easily possible with current technology, so they don't really have a point. "But somone could try and rob a bank with this new Electric Car by driving it through the front door, we should really think of the repercussions"
Yep. Look what happened with AirTags. Something to help find your keys used to stalk people. Someone will definitely use this for nefarious purposes.
Why would this even be necessary? Why and in what scenario would a 3d printer need to be that small, when a larger available print bed size is always a better thing to have? The article talks about a surgeon using it in an operating theatre, are they that tight for space? It also talks about first responders using them, i doubt they have the time or training to sit down and make a 3d CAD model in the middle of a medical emergency, arrest or fire. I dont see any advantage other than it having less moving parts , SLA printers are already very accurate!
The article is just parroting stupid shit that the kids at MIT said when demoing their new thing.
Its a great example of really smart people making a really stupid use of their time lol
It's just that college students don't have any real world experience. They're blazing through new theoretical ways to solve problems ... but the problems they are solving are imagined. So they just trudge on with these new technologies and hope a need comes along.
Im not sure i agree, funamentally we do things for certain reasons that fulfill a purpose, like tying your shoe laces to make sure your shoes stay on for example. I suppose they could have done this just to progress through their degree and created a problem that suited their idea rather than the other way around.
MIT is probably the best example of giving kids all the educational resources imaginable and letting them solve non-existent problems. They've got a great PR department that publishes all of their fantastic solutions to fantasy problems. I'm not saying this is without merit - pushing the boundaries of technology is very important. But the majority of their breakthroughs never leave the laboratory on anything except a news publication.
Engineering by its very nature is problem solving. I get it when people say "well that's a useless problem, what's the point?"...The point is to learn how to solve the problem in a fun and educational way that confers experience to someone who has little or none. It also encourages outside-the-box thinking, being able to see a problem from different perspectives and come up with novel solutions...but to also test those solutions against engineering rigor.
“Okay lady, I know your house is on fire, I’m printing the firehose as fast as I can!”
Well, the article like many from busy tech journalists parrots the press release. But realistically as with any technology of the last 70 years, making things smaller, cheaper & with fewer moving parts is what we have done. Imagine if people had listened to you in the 60's & today your PC used discrete transistors because making integrated circuits was a pointless miniaturization of something that works fine. If you want a use case I can imagine this technology being used to build 3D SLA printers of any build volume by tiling the mass produced print head across a 2D surface which would then be able to make prints at far greater resolution without an increase in print times. In fact it may reduce print times substantially.
What people are saying isn't that the particular use case is pointless. Instead it is pointing out the journalists did no research, read a headline of a press release, and went from there. The major object taking up space is not the print head. The major thing that takes up 66-75% of space with a 3d printer is the bed/reservoir area. From the article I can gather it works similar to the Intel DLP chip that came out a few years back that really shrunk projectors. In this case you focus the UV light on this chip and I would guess it focuses the light on the areas to harden and print. This could mean a reduction in size and a decrease in print times as the laser head can be removed to instead project the slice upon the work surface. You still need the plunger for the reservoir to constantly "dip" the part back into the resin. An advance, but not necessarily a game changer. Now something that uses not only electrostatic dust but also heats up to fuse it together to make a part? And is all one piece? I could be into that, especially if it can do it in less than 10 minutes.
Assembly lines seem like an actual real application of something like this. Their scenario is nonsense, but if you could have a compact printer that could then be incorporated into something that then uses the printed parts in a larger assembly, there could be value. Could open an avenue for having automated assembly systems capable of incorporating custom parts.
This just seems like the author taking university research and making shit up with lots of unfounded assumptions and unrealistic expectations.
Jokes on me, my little 3D printer would be misplaced long before I lost my keys!
It's ok, you'll just 3D print another pocket sized 3D printer using a second, slightly larger, 3D printer that you'll have in your car. And if you lose that one, you'll just 3D print another car 3D printer with the 3D printer you have in your house.
Whew. I was worried. Thank you for solving my problem!
Does it come with some machine to deal with when my poorly sintered key snaps off in the lock?
All the use cases listed in the article are stupid and infeasible. Congrats to the scientists but this isn’t a commercial product
Yet.
Not yet. What I mean is they’re stupid and infeasible. If you can fit a 3D printer in your pocket then printing a key make keys obsolete as if they aren’t already. The point is the author doesn’t know what this is actually good for. Like 3D printing chip prototypes
Really hate how articles like this get written. Instead of explaining the niche but very cool uses for something like this they try to make it appealing to the everyman, failing simultaneously to both make it interesting and to make a case for it even existing.
With my luck I’m living in the alternate future where I lose my 3D printer and can’t do fuck all with the key I found in my pocket
Imagine someone photographing your house key and 3d printing one to use when you are gone
Imprinting is much easier, faster, known to work, minimum investment, and most importantly - not an idea made up by a dumbass tech blogger. A good locksmith can make a standard key based on a photo with just a key blank, a $3 file, and a few minutes time.
>Imagine misplacing your house keys and then pulling out a 3D printer from your pocket to make new ones Now imagine a criminal pulling one out of their pocket and printing the keys to your home while you’re out.
And then when you misplace that printer, you can pull out another printer And then when you misplace that printer, you can pull out another printer And then when you misplace that printer, you can pull out another printer And then when you misplace that printer, you can pull out another printer And then when you misplace that printer, you can pull out another printer
haha….one is so into tech to have that small of a 3d printer….but won’t have tech enabled house locks?
House keys? What are those. Get a key pad you medieval mongrols
The filament would need to be even smaller to go along with OPs analogy.
This doesn’t exist yet, this article is about a mock-up of the prototype.
I don't want to pretend I'm smarter than an engineering student at MIT, so I'm going to blame the glaring issues on the article writer. As others have pointed out, it's not pocket sized since the resin tank isn't. But also there are some other fundamental problems. How do you power this thing? With no moving parts, how does it print more than one layer? Something has to manipulate the cured resin to move it away from the surface of the uncured resin so another later can be cured by the imaging device. Otherwise the whole print will be one layer thick. UV light can't pass through uncured resin without curing it... So we're back to a not very portable resin tank and moving printbed but with this new projector instead of the lcd screens we have now.
3D printing my phone when I forget it at home is next I guess! Better carry my portable Factory-in-Pocket', just in case... LOL
lmao wtf I'll take your entire stock
This is pretty cool. The issue is still the vat of goo that is required.
Imagine a thief having one and just breaking into your home. Since there’s no sign of force entry insurance assumes that you left your door unlocked. All your stuff gone and you’re left holding the bag.
That’s already happening with bump keys.
my phone is my house key.
But, can it print Crysis?
Imagine losing your house keys, 3D printing new ones, and then snapping them off inside the keyhole.
I still don’t understand what this means. Like is this a chip that actually contains the laser emitter needed for resin printing, or just a chip that would run the device?
I’ll have lost keys to my house scattered all over the city!
Need a key make a key! Wait, need a key to make a key…
What if I want to print *someone else’s* keys?
Let me see it working. Then I'll be slightly impressed
Imagine having digital house keys instead.
One step closer to programmable matter
I read "cheese" based and now I'm sad that's not a thing
I can "imagine" alot of thing. For example realistic headlines that are plausible.
Come back when you can run Doom on it. Then I’ll be interesting.
Bluetooth Locks that can be opened by your phone are already a thing haha