Neri Oxman from MIT's  research group, MEDIATED MATTER with sponsorship from OBJET and the help of additional partners including Uformia, is part of a new exhibit at Centre Pompidou in Paris, France called MULTIVERSITÉS CRÉATIVES.  This exhibit poses the idea that both design and mythology can be used for telling stories and in doing so reveal much about culture and humanity.  Uformia is thrilled to be a participating partner in the exhibit and that Symvol was able to help Neri achieve her desired results.

The photo to the left is the 3D printed result of the collaboration between Uformia and Neri. Amazing! Having seen many 3D printed objects, this is the first which does not look like it came off a printer - it actually looks like organic growth!

Neri had three problems with the design, modeling and fabricating of the helmet:

1. The design was inspired by natural interactions that result in a complex set of patterns that are difficult or impossible to model as continuous or even coherent surfaces with a great deal of simplification.

2. Part of the design and modeling required parametrized interaction with medical data from a human head.

3. The fabrication method needed to combine and tightly integrate two materials, which required either direct fabrication or very complex, high detailed watertight meshes.

Happily, Symvol was able to preform all these tasks. As Uformia Beta Partner's already know Symvol can take medical data converting it into a first class object that can then be manipulated and used as you would any other object in our system. Using Symvol we took the initial disconnected and intersecting surface meshes provided from simulation as input to created offset shells which were then combined with the medical data to inform the final shape of the helmet and provide for watertight volumes. This was all done using the Beta version of Symvol Pro with no special extensions or additional code.

As you can see, this allowed for an incredibly complex multi-material object with small details and heterogeneous material integration.

If you happen to be in Paris between now and 6 August, 2012, stop by and take a look at the future of design and 3D printing!  Congratulations to Neri and all on the extraordinary exhibit.