Borrowing logic from the 3D printing industry, Kniterate lets users turn ideas and designs from digital files to one-off wearable garments in hours. Able to “print” shirts, scarves, sweaters, dresses and more, the machine is aimed at enabling customized creations as well as rapid prototyping.

Compact, portable and affordable, the gadget itself links into computer and mobile apps – creatives can build out ideas in Photoshop, build them in Kniterate’s device-specific application, then send them to straight to production with the touch of a button.

The application comes with a number of preset patterns that can be used but the intuitive interface is also designed to allow for easy from-scratch creations, even by people with limited digital design experience. Even in cases there the final product will be made via other methods or materials, this machine allows for iterative design experiments to test size, fit and styles.

The system is also designed to reduce waste from off-cut materials, printing with the exact amount of material needed to make a particular piece. The device can carry up to six yarns at a time to span an array of colors and materials – it is also made to be compatible with off-the-shelf yarns, making it more flexible and affordable than printers (often designed to make money from material sales rather than the machines themselves).

Toy-maker Mattel has announced a 3D printer with a novel application: a way for children to make their own custom toys using a simple digital interface. The app, designed by Autodesk, is easy to learn, fast to use and simple enough even younger kids can use it. The gadget itself is priced at $300.

The ThingMaker program comes with a number of templates and basic characters that can be customized in terms of color and texture, but also allows for from-scratch designs. Each design can be saved for future editing and printing as well, in standard formats that work with or beyond the printer.

Finished objects are only one piece of the puzzle, however: the idea is to also allow for printing, connecting and assembling larger creations from smaller parts. Ball-and-socket joints can be easily included for attachment purposes, helping facilitate complex dolls and action figures. Eventually, Mattel may also facilitate combinations and accessories associated with existing branded toy lines, like Barbie and Hot Wheels.

Various safety measures have been included to keep kids safe, from an automatically-locking door to a retractable print head. For liability reasons they are listing it as a device for kids ages 13 or older.

“In today’s digital age, it’s more important than ever for families to transcend the digital world and make their ideas real,” said Aslan Appleman, senior director, at Mattel. “ThingMaker pushes the boundaries of imaginative play, giving families countless ways to customize their toys and let their creativity run wild.”

If your mobile device runs out of batteries on the streets of Grenoble, simply find one of these machines, specify a desired duration, and receive a free printed short story to read in a park or on a train.

Deployed by the publishers of Short Édition, these automated kiosks are online 24 hours a day with a selection of 600 short stories, works selected by a community of over 140,000 subscribers. Would-be readers are directed to select the length of story they wish to read, then wait a few moments while the tale is printed.

No one is suggesting we stop traveling with our cell phones on hand, but for people who need a break from the screen or desire some alternative entertainment, this provides another option. The project creates not just printed stories but focal points for urban interaction, changing the way we think about and connect with cities and one another.

That said, the ‘stories’ component is still a critical component of this civic intervention: “Stories are an important part of our life. We need them to construct who we are as individuals. More and more people don’t take the time anymore to sit and read a book. This is a way to have a little ‘bite’ of a story, just for a couple of minutes.”

Able to print full-sized structures from mud and clay, this 40-foot-tall 3D printer represents a huge step toward printing affordable housing from free materials. The project was unveiled yesterday, debuting with a live demonstration at a three day rally event in Italy along with a series of workshops and conferences.

Representing a hybrid of biomimicry, new technologies and ancient building techniques, the BigDelta printer from World’s Advanced Saving Project (WASP) draws inspiration from natural and human precedents.

BigDelta’s structural strategies and resulting home shapes are informed by a breed of wasp that constructs mud homes as well as a long human tradition of creating earthen dwellings.

Building with water, dirt, clay and plant fibers taps into a set of plentiful organic resources, reduces environmental impacts, obviates the cost of and need to ship materials and provides naturally robust and insulated housing shells.

The lightweight steel frame of the printer itself, supporting a giant printing nozzle suspended in its open center, is easy to collapse and transport between construction sites.

This larger model follows a smaller Delta prototype used to execute a series of complex geometric structures at reduced size, testing the technology and materials.

The design aims to address a growing housing crisis: “by 2030, international estimates foresee a rapid growth of adequate housing requirements for over 4 billion people living with yearly income below $3,000. The United Nations calculated that over the next 15 years there will be an average daily requirement of 100.000 new housing units to meet this demand.”

Generating objects 25 to 100 times faster than traditional layer-based 3D printers, this new continuous-liquid approach to high-speed fabrication can create complex yet refined finished objects that are at once more pristine and quickly produced, all by harnessing oxygen and light to ‘grow’ results. Its inventors say their solution was inspired in part by a well-known, time-traveling, liquid-metal robot from a science fiction film and indeed both technologies may be poised to change the the future.

A group of scientists from the University of North Carolina have just published a paper in Science on the technology, filed for a patent and formed a company around it called Carbon3D, currently backed by $40,000,000 in funding. Essentially, a pool of photosensitive resin floating on a plane of dissolved oxygen provides the raw material bath, while a device suspended above draws resin up and out. The trick to hardening the substance as it is lifted lies in a UV light projector which emits a 2D cross-section of each layer, continuously changing shape as the device above is raised.

Watching it in action, it is easy to see how the idea came in part from the shape-shifting Terminator ‘upgrade’ first found in the second installation of the ongoing movie franchise. Emerging from a liquid pool, the resulting solid takes shape with remarkable speed.

Effectively, each layer of the object is not only printed at once, but without delays in between – hence “continuous liquid interface production.” In contrast, normal 3d printers are limited in part by the printer heads that deposit materials one point at a time, moving along each plane before moving up to the next level. “Traditional 3D printing requires a number of mechanical steps, repeated over and over again in a layer-by-layer approach. CLIP is a chemical process that carefully balances light and oxygen to eliminate the mechanical steps and the layers.”

Moreover, unlike many current models, the continuous production method eliminates rough edges and forms a fully-solid object that, depending on the materials used, could result in a cleaner and stronger finished product. Indeed, the device supports a range of both solid and flexible polymers, giving it potential for all kinds of applications. “Parts printed with CLIP are much more like injection-molded parts. CLIP produces consistent and predictable mechanical properties, creating parts that are smooth on the outside and solid on the inside.”

Meanwhile, materials like “elastomers cover a range of needs, from the high elasticity needed for athletic shoes to the strength and temperature resistance needed for automotive parts.” Currently, the device on display is just a prototype, but once put into commercial production it could well be a pivotal piece in transitioning the 3D printing industry from a slow-growing niche to a full-fledged revolution for making everything from rapid prototypes to other useful objects at speed.