Oct. 28, 2014 | By Alec
3D printing in transparent material, like resin, has been becoming more widely available in recent years, which offers a wide range of new opportunities for those with access to this 3D printing technology. Certainly, you can develop miniscule or high-quality objects with, like this actually 3D printed optical lens that we reported on a few weeks ago.
But, for the more artistic amongst you, did you know that transparent materials also offer multicolored options? LED lighting is widely and affordably available nowadays, and in combination with resin printing it really creates some nice effects. This is perhaps best seen in an extremely impressive project that MIT postdoc and engineer Nicolas Aimon recently revealed.
For he has used 3D printing technology to create a replica of the brain of a fruit fly, and has incorporated lighting effects to mimic brain activity (and lighten up the room). More impressively, the brain is actually completely accurate, having based his 3D print on data from the FlyBrain project. Using fluorescence data of actual flies, that project has developed an accurate 3D model of fly brains. That model, as it turned out, was perfect for 3D printing.
As Nicolas explained, he drew his inspiration from the scientific research of his sister. 'As part of her research at the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind at UC San Diego, in the research laboratory of Prof. Ralph Greenspan, my sister uses advanced microscopy techniques to observe the activity of the brain of the fruit fly (Drosophila Melangogaster) in 3D dimensions.'
Nicolas himself works at MIT in the Materials Science and Engineering department, where they had just acquired a Formlabs 3D printer, which has a great print resolution and allows to make models in a transparent resin. Bringing one and two together, he began thinking about ways of taking 3 dimensional data from the 2D screen and into the real world. 'After several iterations, I decided to use optical fibers to light up a 3D printed model in specific locations.'
And the results are very impressive. Not only is the 3D print absolutely gorgeous and very detailed, Nicolas created an additional lighting effect using a number of optical fibers, Adafruit Neopixel lighting and a healthy dose of Arduino software. Fortunately, he also explained his various steps in an Instructable page, allowing anyone to recreate or modify his designs.
Fortunately for Nicolas, the 3D data was already available and easily transformed into an STL file. The hardest part, in truth, was in placing the optical fibers that would be able specifically illuminate various locations.
Check out these cool clip of the 3D model of the fly brain:
As he explained, he 'ended up generating a grid of regularly-spaced spheres covering the whole volume of the model, and deleted all of those that were not entirely contained inside the model mesh. 53 spheres remained, which would later correspond to the total number of fibers needed to illuminate the whole model relatively homogeneously.' Following this 2 diameter cylinders were generated in the model to allow for room to insert the fibers.
Printing the brain itself is quite straightforward. Nicolas used MIT's Formlabs 3D printer, which can print in resin, but you could also use transparent plastic for similar effects. All the fibers then need to be manually inserted and glued into place. But obviously, 'do it once without glue, just to make sure there is no conflict between to fibers.' As for the glue, Nicolas used epoxy. He also started in the center and moved outwards to avoid confusion.
For the lighting effects themselves, Nicolas settled for Adafruit's Neopixels which turned out to be very useful. 'They are super convenient since you only need three wires (power and signal) to address a large number of these LEDs in series. I ordered a strip which, I think, gives the most flexibility in terms of cutting and soldering them in the desired shape and arrangement.' These can be purchased from Adafruit's web store.
Nicolas then proceeded to construct a hardboard box using laser cutting technology, which would hold the fibers perfectly in place. 'I then cut an acrylic sheet to the exact inner dimensions of the box, with small slots to perfectly fit the LED strips and hold them exactly below the optical fibers.' However, the box has also been designed to hold the Arduino in place. A convenient USB port provides all the necessary access and power.
Aligning all the fibers up with the LED grid, the whole construction can then be brought together. Finally, secure the Arduino, connect the power and signal wires for the LEDs, and close the box!
However, Nicolas's cool bug brain is more than just an original bedside lamp! While you could just use the Adafruit Neopixel library to light up your model, Nicolas wanted something more. He has also programmed the LEDs to display the data measured in the original fly's brain, which required some programming.
As he explained, 'to achieve this, the final piece of the puzzle is the code that converts the intensity information from the Cartesian grid of the measured data to the position of the respective fibers. For a given LED, say, number n on the strip, I know the coordinates x(n), y(n) and z(n) of its end inside the model (they correspond to the centers of my spheres as described earlier). Even though these coordinates often do not coincide with a point of the initial data, I can calculate which intensity to display on that particular LED using a simple interpolation, in other words, by approximating its value using the nearest existing data points.'
To check that this interpolation worked as he hoped, that the orientation of the data matched that of the model, and that the fibers were correctly placed in front of their intended LEDs, Nicolas simply inserted some test data 'I fed the algorithm with fake data (on a Cartesian grid) in which a simple intensity wave sweeps from left to right, bottom to top, and front to back. Needless to say, I was relieved to see the brain light up properly.'
While these last programming step might go over some people's heads, the results speak for themselves. Not only is this a wonderfully cool and highly-detailed multi-colored lamp, the fact that it is capable of recreating the brain activity of the fly it's based on is just mind-blowing. This very cool fly-brain-lamp both a testimony to the creative possibilities of 3D printing, it is also a wonderful example of what can be achieved when adding some electronics.
Would anyone like a lamp shaped and functioning like a human brain?
Also check out the brain in action:
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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