Mar 30, 2016 | By Kira
3D printing marketplace Threeding has launched yet another joint venture with 3D scanning hardware and software company Artec 3D to promote education, scientific knowledge, and the preservation of rare avian species. For this latest project, the two companies are teaming up to 3D scan and digitize more than 55 endangered and threatened birds, all of which will be made available to students, ornithologists, veterinarians, and biologists in a 3D printer-friendly format.
Browsing through your favorite 3D printing marketplace, you can find just about any 3D printable model you’re after—home décor, furniture, video game content, engineering tools, kitchen supplies…really, anything. But Bulgarian 3D printing marketplace Threeding doesn’t just want to make the everyday available, its goal is to capture the rare, historical, and the irreplaceable, and to preserve it all via 3D scanning and 3D printing technology. For its part, Artec 3D provides some of the most advanced 3D scanning solutions on the market, and is well aware of the power of 3D scanning to help preserve and recreate life as we know it.
Artec 3D and Threeding’s collaboration goes back to 2014, when the two companies set out to 3D scan historical artifacts from leading Central and Eastern European museums. Earlier this year, the two collaborated again, this time 3D scanning and digitizing a large collection of Ancient Greek artifacts.
With the 3D ornithology project (ornithology is the study of birds), Threeding will use Artec’s high resolution Spider and EVA 3D scanners as well as Artec’s Studio software to produce textured, high resolution scans of rare bird species, including the Eastern Imperial Eagle, White-Tailed Eagle, Boreal Owl, Humboldt Penguin, Black-Crowned Night Heron, Long-Eared Owel, and more.
The 3D scans will be taken from stuffed educational models provided from several scientific facilities and converted into 3D printable files. In turn, these 3D files will give veterinary students, biological and ornithology scientists, and universities and scientific organizations rare and unprecedented physical access to these species without putting any real birds at risk.
In fact, this is precisely what makes the 3D Ornithology project so unique. Whereas Threeding and Artec 3D's past collaborations have been about preserving ancient material objects, this project has the potential to save actual, living creatures from being needlessly killed .
The fact is that many endangered bird species are not merely dying off from 'natural causes'. Rather, these rare and beautiful birds live under the threat of being hunted or even illegally poached so that they can be stuffed, put on display, and sold, whether for personal or educational purposes. By providing realistic, textured and high resolution 3D models that can be 3D printed at home, Threeding and Artec 3D hope to provide a more humane alternative to the practice of hunting and collecting real stuffed birds.
"We are extremely happy to extend our portfolio of 3D printing files to ornithology models,” said Cveta Partaleva, co-founder of Threeding. “Our aim is to make our website not only a consumer platform, but also the premier resource for educational and scientific 3D printable models.”
“It has been a privilege to work with Threeding these past few years and we’re excited to continue this partnership as the company ventures into animal preservation,” said Artyom Yukhin, president and CEO of Artec 3D. “The preservation of all animal species is of critical importance and relies heavily upon education. The portability and ease afforded to users of our handheld scanners and software suite is offering a means for students, scientists and conservationists alike to exchange information and work together in this effort.”
The complete digitized collection of 3D printable birds will be available for free on Threeding to all users for the month of April. From May onwards, free access to be granted to students, universities and scientific organizations upon request, while other users will be able to access the 3D files for a fee.
Threeding also plans to release several other educational and scientific 3D printing projects in the fields of paleontology, anatomy and archaeology, which will be made public in the near future.
Posted in 3D Scanning
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