Custom 3D printed glasses are only a venture capital campaign away from reality

I have been watching the development of 3D printing for several years. Technology has been developed that enables almost anyone to 'manufacture' or print in 3D, using layer upon layer of material, 'printed' on top of the preceding layer to create objects in 3D. It has reached the stage that £D printering devices can be now be bought for as little as £750.

A start-up company, Protos, have turned their attention to creating spectacle frames using this technology. Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/30/protos-crowdfunding-3d-printed-glasses/#qeJAu5FfUjhOJKQR.99 .

The following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pgp0-wRgG3w (if cut and pasted itno your browser) shows how the user would interface with Protos to enable them to capture sufficient facial characteristics to enable them to custom "print" your spectacle frame.

Protos wants to bring its 3D printed eyewear to the masses, but first it needs a bit of cash. Using its own proprietary material, Protos creates light, flexible glasses frames that can be tweaked to give wearers a custom fit.

In an effort to get the project off the ground, Protos has launched a crowdfunding campaign, which it hopes will help it raise $25,000. (Notably, the campaign is powered by Crowdhoster, an interesting new platform that lets fundraisers run campaigns from their own domains.)

Protos says that much of the funding will be used to pay developers, which it needs to create a more elaborate and user-friendly interface for the fitting process.

Protos’s efforts show one of the reasons why 3D printing is so darn neat: It lets manufacturers create smaller, more custom batches of products without having to worry about some of the scale constraints core to larger manufacturing operations.

With eyewear, traditional manufacturing processes have dictated that companies must make thousands of the exact same frames at once, regardless of whether those frames are particularly well-suited to any one person’s face. By using 3D printing, Proto’s turns that process on its head, which is why it’s worth paying attention to.

This technology is one to watch for the future.





© Dr Rob Hogan 2017                                                                                                                              info@icare-consulting.co.uk