Three-dimensional (3D) printing is emerging as a clinically promising technology for rapid prototyping of surgically implantable products. With this commercially available technology, computed tomography or magnetic resonance images can be used to create graspable objects from 3D reconstructed images. Models can enhance patients' understanding of their pathology and surgeon preoperative plannin...

Development and comparison of spine-shaped phantoms generated by two different 3D-printing technologies, digital light processing (DLP) and Polyjet has been purposed to utilize in patient-specific quality assurance (QA) of stereotactic body radiation treatment. The developed 3D-printed spine QA phantom consisted of an acrylic body phantom and a 3D-printed spine shaped object. DLP and Polyjet 3D...

Like a human, a robot may benefit from being able to use a tool to solve a complex task. When an appropriate tool is not available, a very useful ability for a robot would be to create a novel one based on its past experience. With the advent of inexpensive 3D printing, it is now possible to give robots such an ability, at least to create simple tools. We propose a method for learning how to us...

3D printing has raised a lot of attention from fields outside the manufacturing one in the last years. In this paper, we will illustrate some recent advances of 3D printing technology, applied to the field of telemedicine and remote patient care. The potentiality of this technology will be detailed without lab examples. Some crucial aspect such as the regulation of these devices and the need of...

We introduce a new approach to design and fabrication of mechatronic systems called flexonics. Flexonics integrates structural, mechanical and electronic elements based on 3D printing techniques, in particular inkjet printing. This paper outlines some principles for flexonic design, which is based on flexion rather than sliding or rolling motion as in traditional mechanics. It describes our pre...

Bone flutes make use of a naturally hollow raw-material. As nature does not produce duplicates, each bone has its own inner cavity, and thus its own sound-potential. This morphological variation implies acoustical specificities, thus making it impossible to handcraft a true and exact sound-replica in another bone. This phenomenon has been observed in a handcrafting context and has led us to con...