3D Printing is a new opportunity for internet entrepreneurs

Apple has gradually become the most popular technology company in the past 10 years, and the company's performance in the stock market has proved that the practice has been recognized by investors. Therefore, the Internet company represented by Google, the traditional software company represented by Microsoft, has begun to pay more attention to the development of its own hardware in the past two years. Many Silicon Valley bosses are also starting to sing the tone of "hardware revival".

In fact, the so-called "hardware Revival" is not the traditional sense of the hardware has become popular, once in the consumer hardware sector is popular in the decline or decline in the brand, Sony is a typical representative. The real reason for the hardware to be valued again is the software. The rise of software definition networks (Software tabbed receptacle, SDN) even suggests that the future even more complex networks are based on software control systems.

We found that hardware has become an entity extension and extension of software that is the interface between the bits world and the atom world, just to help the software perform a variety of functions and services better. So we can call these hardware "new hardware," and the core of the new hardware is still software.

As the interface between the Atom world and the bit world, the new hardware cannot ignore the internet which has entered the mature stage, and the mobile Internet which is developing rapidly. Who knows more about software and algorithms, who knows more about the Internet or mobile Internet? Of course, the Internet, mobile internet industry practitioners.

You said that the Internet people do not understand the hardware? But the emergence of open source hardware, so that hardware is no longer the main obstacle, but the lack of software and application innovation, so that it can not develop rapidly.

For example, the technology (or concept) has been developed for nearly 30 years, but it has benefited greatly from open source hardware projects, but it has grown into the public eye and gradually expanded to the consumer sector. One of the most influential, should be founded in 2007, the famous open source 3D printer Project RepRap. However, 3D printing is now facing a similar situation to other open source hardware: the lack of creative and niche markets to achieve.

As Li Davi said, "open source gives the platform a horizontal spread that makes it easy for people who don't know software hardware to make products," but as "today's Web 2.0, finding good ideas is more important than web hardware and technology". Just a good idea to rely on everyone through the software to achieve, like the two years of mobile internet, in this circle of people more, will have more good ideas, good products.

So what can software developers bring to 3D printing? First, it can be faster printing speed, higher printing accuracy. In the typical 3D printing process of molten deposition modeling (fused deposition MODELING,FDM) process, the control software needs to calculate the necessary internal and external supporting structure of the model in the process of printing according to the mechanics principle. Then, the support structure and the model are subdivided into the trajectory information which controls the linear movement of the print head.

This process can be regarded as a "stroke" of three-dimensional space, and then reduced to a traveling quotient problem in three-dimensional coordinates (traveling Saleman problem,tsp). Therefore, the optimization of the algorithm can shorten the print head's moving path as much as possible, effectively reduce the printing time.

Second, software developers may also bring in more parallel print heads, as well as more upgrade features. In theory, increasing the number of print heads can increase the printing efficiency and shorten the printing time. However, how to avoid and collaborate with multiple print heads in parallel work is a test for the algorithm of control software.

Selective laser sintering (Selected laser Sintering,sls) and laser melting (selective laser MELTING,SLM) processes can support a variety of materials such as thermoplastic, metal, and ceramics for printing, However, the laser intensity and temperature for different materials are not the same. By upgrading your control software, you may be able to print more material for a single material 3D printer that would otherwise be suitable for printing.

Of course, Internet developers can also connect the printer with their familiar internet/mobile internet, bringing more features and application scenarios. For example, when you travel, you see a delicate sculpture, using the mobile phone's built-in 3D scanning function to obtain its digital model, and then the home of the 3D printer immediately copied it out. Such a scenario may soon become commonplace.

In addition, developers who excel in interactive application design can develop more humane model design software that allows home users who do not use professional CAD software to easily and quickly create print prototypes. Achieving this goal may be more urgent than the previous technical improvements and may even have an impact on the application development process of the 3D printer.

Apps in Apple's App store are close to 800,000, and the number of apps in Google Play is looming. At the same time, there are still countless developers in the mobile Internet circle, the number will continue to climb. However, the smartphone platform on a few, users of the daily use of the dozens of, and found that the application of the way only so some, in addition to the brush list, you still have a faster and more effective way to let users find your application?

On the other hand, there are countless sites submerged in the Internet. There is a little story that you may have seen many times elsewhere, but I think it's a good place to end this article, hoping to bring more thought to China's 3D printing.

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(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)