Now, a 3D printer that can build a house in 24 hours
Scaled up 3D printing technology could be used to build a house in under 24 hours, according to an engineer from the University of Southern California.
Contour Crafting is a layered fabrication technology that uses a huge moveable gantry to build a house in the same way that a 3D printer deposits layers of plastic.
Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis claims that his Contour Crafting construction method can build entire houses with all the fixtures and fittings.
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Strong walls are built up layer by layer using concrete with automatic reinforcement, while plumbing and electrics are also added by the system during the building process.
The nature of the technology means it will also be possible to create curved walls and architecture that is both 'exotic' and 'beautiful', according to Khoshnevis.
Khoshnevis says current construction methods are slow, labour intensive and costly.
He believes that Contour Crafting could build houses for a fraction of the cost and in significantly less time.
Khoshnevis says that a 2500-square-foot house can be built in approximately 20 hours with Contour Crafting.
As a result, it could be ideal for emergency housing, commercial or low-income structures.
However, it could also be used to print out customised luxury homes, according to Khoshnevis.
Furthermore, he believes that the technology could be applied beyond our planet.
'Contour Crafting technology has the potential to build safe, reliable, and affordable lunar and Martian structures, habitats, laboratories, and other facilities before the arrival of human beings,' his website reads.
The technology has been developed over several years and was presented at the TEDx conference in February.
Contour Crafting is a layered fabrication technology that uses a huge moveable gantry to build a house in the same way that a 3D printer deposits layers of plastic.
Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis claims that his Contour Crafting construction method can build entire houses with all the fixtures and fittings.
Scroll down for video
Concrete is deposited in layers through a nozzle that moves around the building site with the help of a gantry
Those behind Contour Crafting believe it could be used to develop entire neighbourhoods
The nature of the technology means it will also be possible to create curved walls and architecture that is both 'exotic' and 'beautiful', according to Khoshnevis.
Khoshnevis says current construction methods are slow, labour intensive and costly.
He believes that Contour Crafting could build houses for a fraction of the cost and in significantly less time.
Khoshnevis says that a 2500-square-foot house can be built in approximately 20 hours with Contour Crafting.
Contour Crafting is a scaled up version of 3D printing. MakerBot (above) is a 3D printer that costs around £600 and uses reels of plastic to print objects
Printed 3D sculptures such as this are becoming increasingly popular as the technology is commercialised
However, it could also be used to print out customised luxury homes, according to Khoshnevis.
Furthermore, he believes that the technology could be applied beyond our planet.
'Contour Crafting technology has the potential to build safe, reliable, and affordable lunar and Martian structures, habitats, laboratories, and other facilities before the arrival of human beings,' his website reads.
The technology has been developed over several years and was presented at the TEDx conference in February.
Soon, super soldiers that won't need food or sleep
ANI
London, August 13, 2012
First Published: 12:37 IST(13/8/2012)
Last Updated: 15:30 IST(13/8/2012)
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A US Marine (R) eats insects during a jungle survival program as part of the annual Cobra Gold 2012 combined military exercise at a navy base in Sattahip. AFP Photo/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul
Military researchers in America are working on projects involving gene manipulation, that will enable soldiers to live without food and sleep and allow those wounded in battle to heal quickly and even regrow limbs. "It may be seen as blue-sky thinking but it has teeth and plenty of money behind it," the Daily Express quoted Novelist Simon Conway, who was given unprecedented access to Washington's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as saying.
With funding of almost 2 billion pounds-a-year DARPA, established in 1958 after the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik shocked America, is working on an exoskeleton that will allow soldiers to run faster and lift heavy weights.
But its most revolutionary work is in gene manipulation .
"If you can efficiently convert fat into energy you don't need to feed your soldiers as often," Conway said.
"So you can send them into battle in remote areas plump and they live off their own fat.
"It is all about improving efficiency of energy creation in the body. Soldiers would be able to run at Olympic speeds, carry large weights and go without sleep and without food," he said.
The agency is also working out how to trigger cells to regrow limbs for soldiers, who are crippled by bombs.
"There is already a drug that allows people to shut off the trigger to sleep," Professor Joel Garreau, of Arizona State University, said.
"It was tested by the US army on helicopter pilots. They found that, after 40 hours, pilots actually had better concentration levels than if they'd rested.It is much better than amphetamines, which affect decision making and have led to many so-called friendly fire incidents," he said.
He confirmed that the agency was experimenting with turning fat to energy.
"The problem is that a Special Forces soldier burns 12,000 calories a day. You can't eat that much. Finding that metabolic switch would wipe out the 40 billion pounds diet industry in a heartbeat," Garreau said.
He said that the project to regrow limbs is being taken seriously.
"There are well-documented cases of young children losing a finger and it grows back.
"The trick is how to identify the trigger. Now it's a well-funded area of research," he added.
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