Alchemy: Analog into Digital
Green into red? Madness!!!
I’m a big fan of bar codes. 1 I really like the idea that you can have something physical instantly transformed into something digital. 2 In a way, a bar code is the opposite side of a MakerBot coin. I realize that print resolutions, thing shapes, and QR code size requirements would preclude this, but it would be so cool to have each object printed from Thingiverse to have a little QR code built into its side. If you wanted to give a copy to your friend – just flash the QR code on the bottom at their phone/webcam/MakerBot and they can have one too.3
An interesting factoid about QR codes is that the size of the QR code box is related to the amount of information being encode into it. The longer the URL, the larger the QR code needs to be. By using a URL shortening service4 on a Thingiverse URL5 along with a QR code generator you can essentially compress the data required to reach a Thing on Thingiverse into a smaller QR code.
Using a 3D scanner to duplicate an object will basically guarantee the digital version of that object will be rougher than the original. However, using a built-in QR code, you could have duplication without generational degradation. It would be like stamping everything on Thingiverse with the DNA necessary to build a duplicate.
Semi-random thoughts:
- Can all of the DNA in a human be expressed as a long string of text?
- If so, it would be very interesting to me to try to encode that long string of text as a QR code. I wonder how large it would have to be?
- One way out is to link to the Human Genome Project, run their link through a URL shortener, and then create a QR code from that. Now you can print people!
The Human Genome Project
- Photo courtesy of Mario Caruso [↩]
- Zach’s recent Tweet got me thinking about this post. [↩]
- Then again, at that point it might be easier to use image recognition software to match the printed thing with the Thingiverse catalog. [↩]
- I like YOURLS, but that’s because I like open source stuff, rolling my own versions of things, and the idea of having my own URL shortening service. [↩]
- Or link to someone else’s STL. [↩]
| Tagged with | alchemy, analog, analog into digital, digital, digital into analog, dna, qr codes, Thingiverse, url shortener | 6 comments |
6 Comments so far
hairmare
me like! Seeing how Android already uses QR codes for software distribution this sounds like a win to me.
semi random answer
1. In theory, yes. The boffins call them “sequence of chemical base pairs” and they only need the letters ATGC since there aren’t more molecules used in DNA. Thus, ASCII would be overkill
2. I’d reckon that a hashing method optimized for the domain could take care of that.
3. Using todays method it still takes a long time to sequence a persons DNA into a machine readable format. That’s why the HGPs data is based on a combined “reference genome” of a small number of anonymous donors. The Archon X Prize wants to solve the speed problem till 2013.
MakerBlock
@Hairmare:
1. I knew about the ATGC letters, but you would need some other agreed upon nomenclature to describe where one chromosome ends and another begins. Obligatory Gattaca reference
2. So, I don’t think the QR code uses a one-way hash. If that were the case, then all QR codes would end up being essentially the same size.
3. Ah, see, I’d always wondered about whether they sequenced one person, several people, or some large number of people.
Tony Buser
According to wikipedia, the human genome would take up 715 megabytes. That would probably be a pretty large QR code.
Rob
If Nigeria were a bit more willing to give out those .ng domains then Thingiverse could have a pretty cool URL shortening service: thi.ng
3D Printer Alchemy - MakerBot Industries
[...] little over a month ago I had pondered how cool it would be to have things on Thingiverse embedded with QR codes – so you could show the bottom of the object to a friend, they could grab the digital file, [...]
HotKey
To create SCAD from an image file (e.g. QR tag) I coded a Java application for you guys:
http://www.bernhardslawik.de/downloads/img2scad/
(Download and double-click the JAR file)
It asks for an image file (png, jpeg, …) and tranforms it into a coloured pixel-by-pixel representation SCAD model!
Have fun!