Hugomatic

This is the video of my talk at Pycon 2012 in Santa Clara. This year, there was an entire track devoted to Makers and embedded systems. Pycon is a great conference and its coming to Montreal in 2014-2015.

People often underestimate the impact that computer programs have on our lives. It goes far beyond GPS programs sending people into dead ends. Its amazing how automatic our world is already, forcing us to hack our way trough life. The world is Kafkaesque!

Most of us think of Google as an Internet company. But in fact they value Makers and have some of the best equipped hackerspaces in the world. This is where they built their self driving cars and Streetview trikes.
Yet another reason everybody wants to work for Google.

This talk is short and very inspiring.
Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing a set of blueprints for 50 farming tools that can be built cheaply from scratch. Call it a “civilization starter kit.”

This is a long video but very interesting. Scott Summit’s background is industrial design, and his video highlights the 3 important components of digital fabrication:
- Scanning
- Parametric design (the user states his intent and the software generates an appropriate design)
- 3D printing
It also points out how green and economical 3D printing really is. With 3D printing, the cost of complexity approaches zero. And because upfront costs are also minimal, it encourages risky ventures and zero inventory businesses.

Will it blend? No doubt about that.

I love good “making of” videos. This one was made by Greg with the help of my friend Noe.

Edition Spéciale Making Of from soulgrafix on Vimeo.

Weather its additive or substractive, CNC is really catching on.  The economist is covering the revolution:

• Feb 2011
• Sept 2009

And if you’re thinking of getting a 3D printer yourself, check out this interesting comparative study of the leading machines. It compares:

• machine and maintenance costs,
• printing time,
• material costs,
• part accuracies,
• part strength,
• post printing efforts (photo-polymer curing, support material removal, finishing)

Its all done in a very clear way, with nice graphics and photos. Because of all the different 3D printing technologies out there, this kind of information is hard to find.

Another nice TED video. This one showcases 3D MRI data, a touch table interface for visualization and how gpu programming is making all this possible. But the best part is:

Real time brain activity images! (around min 14 in the video)

Imagine what we’ll be able to do with a tool like this:
- use the brain a remote
- use the visualization as a music/sport training device, monitoring how well our movements are integrated (depending on cortex activity)
- learn to meditate quickly
- see who’s bored in a meeting
- have a brain to brain conversation with a friend