3D Printers & Data Visualization

The availability and advancements in three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies makes it possible to add additional dimensions for the visual displays of the data. The 3D technologies can create visual (3D) images which have color, height/depth attributes as well as texture attribute. Hence data may be visualized and communicated with sight & touch.

I suppose future enhancement could be made in which the 3D printed image would also use sound & music – in combination with sight & touch – to convey other properties of data. [This is not as far-fetched as you might think; there are already 3D printers that produce working mechanical mechanisms.]

3D Printers

An overview of 3D printers is given at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

One may think of a 3D printer as a 3D inkjet printer that deposits droplets of plastic, layer by layer, gradually building up an object of any shape. Fabbers have been around for two decades, but they've always been the pricey playthings of high-tech labs — and could only use a single material. A Fab at Home kit costs around $2400 and allows users to print anything from Hors d'Oeuvres to flashlights."


3D Visualization

This document below discusses the application of 3D printers to cartographic data visualization

http://www.bbr.bund.de/nn_103116/DE/Raumbeobachtung/Werkzeuge/Visualisierung/Veroeffentlichungen__Artikel/visualizationsurfaces,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/visualizationsurfaces.pdf


Example of 3D Printing Technology For Data Display

This is an example of a 3D printing product and its application to the display of geo-spatial data. It is from http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=2034&trv=1