Making data matter: Voxel printing for the digital fabrication of data across scales and domains
Name
eaas8652.full.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.39 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
3e3b47f88053f453476a78e15bc6c2aa
Author(s)
Bader, Christoph
Kolb, Dominik
Weaver, James C
Sharma, Sunanda
Hosny, Ahmed
Costa, João
Oxman, Neri
Date Issued
2018
Journal
Science Advances
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Copyright © 2018 The Authors. We present a multimaterial voxel-printing method that enables the physical visualization of data sets commonly associated with scientific imaging. Leveraging voxel-based control of multimaterial three-dimensional (3D) printing, our method enables additive manufacturing of discontinuous data types such as point cloud data, curve and graph data, image-based data, and volumetric data. By converting data sets into dithered material deposition descriptions, through modifications to rasterization processes, we demonstrate that data sets frequently visualized on screen can be converted into physical, materially heterogeneous objects. Our approach alleviates the need to postprocess data sets to boundary representations, preventing alteration of data and loss of information in the produced physicalizations. Therefore, it bridges the gap between digital information representation and physical material composition. We evaluate the visual characteristics and features of our method, assess its relevance and applicability in the production of physical visualizations, and detail the conversion of data sets for multimaterial 3D printing. We conclude with exemplary 3D-printed data sets produced by our method pointing toward potential applications across scales, disciplines, and problem domains.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1126/SCIADV.AAS8652
