Ideally, the concept of “on demand” shouldn’t limit itself to pay-per-view movies. If 3D printers were widely available in every household, consumers could quickly “demand” and fabricate specialized food and other objects at the touch of a button. Scientists in the emerging field of “bioprinting” are even attempting to make it possible to “print” custom-made biological tissue from a patient’s own cells.

According to Cornell University Professor Hod Lipson, 3D printers are reaching a “tipping point” where they will become affordable, accessible, and versatile enough to reach the average consumer.

This idea is certainly appealing — widespread availability of such technology (and an understanding of how to use it) would spark the rise of personal manufacturing and encourage innovation. But will it happen anytime soon?

In-Orbit Ultrasounds Conducted Onboard Space Vehicles

Medical imaging technology has led to quicker diagnoses of conditions that, when caught early, can be treated. Because such devices are large, however, they are impractical in the limited area of a space vehicle. An on-going NASA project to address the issue involves image fusion, where in-orbit ultrasounds would be combined with previously done Earth-bound scans that are more informative. NASA Tech Briefs spoke with Dr. Richard Boyle, the project’s principal investigator.

Dr. Boyle explained, “Image fusion is the combining of images of the same subject from different modalities, from CT scans to MRIs. This produces a coherent 3D image that has multi-dimensional information that should be superior to any of the constituent images alone.”

Read the “Who’s Who at NASA” interview with Dr. Richard Boyle on page 10 of the June issue, or click here.

Scientists have begun the final leg of a five-year, NASA-funded mission to reach the bottom of Cenote Zacatón in Mexico, the world’s deepest known sinkhole. Using the Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX), scientists aim to learn more about Cenote Zacatón’s physical dimensions, the geothermal vents that feed it, and the forms of life that exist in its depths.

DEPTHX — an autonomous submarine that creates 3D maps of previously unexplored areas as it swims along and then uses those same maps to navigate back to the surface — is designed to survey and explore life in extreme regions on Earth and potentially in outer space. DEPTHX’s technology could be applied to future space probes of Europa, where scientists believe that deep cracks and holes in the ice offer a chance of finding extraterrestrial life. The technology has also been approved for a new NASA mission to explore one of Antarctica’s ice-bound polar lakes.

For more information, click here.

New data-display technology developed at Kent State University will provide doctors with an improved ability to evaluate commonly used medical images. The technology allows for interactive viewing of large image data sets from virtually any medical imaging device. The new system is compatible with all imaging devices, will translate and display data immediately and in its entirety, and allows for user- friendly manipulation of the data for evaluation and analysis.

While the technology can be applied to any large 3D or 4D data set, it is most readily applicable to medical images. For instance, CT scans generate large 3D and 4D data sets. The new technology will produce 3D, high-quality, real-time images of the data to help medical professionals more clearly view and rapidly extract important diagnostic information about the body’s structures or disease processes.

For more information, click here.

MIT researchers have developed a new type of laser based on Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) for taking high-resolution, 3D images of the retina. OCT uses light to obtain high-resolution, cross-sectional images of the eye to visualize subtle changes that occur in retinal disease.

Conventional OCT imaging typically yields a series of 2D cross-sectional images of the retina, which can be combined to form a 3D image of its volume. The system works by scanning light back and forth across the eye, measuring the echo time delay of reflected light along micrometer-scale lines that, row by row, build up high-resolution images.

Commercial OCT systems scan the eye at rates ranging from several hundred to several thousand lines per second. But a typical patient can only keep the eye still for about one second, limiting the amount of 3D data that can be acquired. Using the new laser, the researchers report retinal scans at speeds of up to 236,000 lines per second, a factor of 10 improvement over current OCT technology.

Click here for the full story.