NYTimes.com: Now computers and their tireless calculations may bolster the skills of many people who want to create well-cut picture frames, inlays or furniture but lack the dexterity.
Alec Rivers, a Ph.D. student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and colleagues have created a prototype for a compact, computerized addition to power tools that automatically performs precision measuring and cutting.
10 comments:
When computers get even smarter, the other senses may well be represented - we are already making substantial progress here with touch-sensitive devices such as the iPod, iPad, etc. It is only a matter of time that other senses also get represented - such as the sense of smell and taste.
What a cool toy! I don't have a very steady hand when it comes to woodworking, and that's usually a product of myself and the tool. This technology allows people like me (and every one else for that matter) to cut precise things without having to be trained or operate large, ocmputer based cnc milling or cutting machines. That is huge. I would like to know a little more on how it knows what the intended pattern is. I can't wait for this to come out because I want one!
This tool while a cool mechanical feat and a great little toy for an MIT graduate student is by my estimation still years from hitting a scene shop floor. Until we can get CNC routing into a reasonable price range I doubt that we will be able to get it into our hand tools. I also wonder what the limit of this tools ability to correct is. Can you be more than a half of an inch off from the line or do you have to be more precise. I do agree that this would be a great tool for those of us who have trouble with less than steady hands.
This scares me. I want to have complete control over the tools in my hands. And while I'm sure you can probably over-power this device, it makes me nervous that it seems like it can just move it by itself. If you are going to do that, then put it on an actual CNC machine. I think with this, people are not going to take the care and pay attention like they should. It also seems like it would be more work and take awhile to set up for even simple things... From what it looks like you either need to put those strips down on your material for the computer to read, or you need to upload a program to the tool.
I'm with Luke on this one. It's way out of the scope of our current industry, maybe 5 years down the road we'll start to see this creep in, but the price point has to be pretty darn good for it to really take hold. Until then I'll stick with CNC, because like Tiffany said, if I'm doing something by hand, I want control, and I agree that people may start to loose respect for the tools they are using, especially if they aren't the most knowledgeable with them in the first place. I also would like to know more about the programming and how that works, I realize that it can 'sense' the pattern or have one uploaded, but then what type of protocol are we looking at? Also, if I've drawn out a grid in order to loft an image and don't have time to program the device or tape out the path is it going to get confused by my other lines?
I mean, it's neat...but is it practical?
This is amazing that everyone could have effectively had their own C & C router to cut things for them but it is powered by them. I wonder when this is replaced if it will be free or will you have to pay money for this. I hope this makes it so a lot of theaters can have this technology so they can do more precise work. I hope when it is replaced the bugs will be at a minimum. Also I hope that the technology is not all that fragile and is able to keep up to a beating of being in a show, not having to be taken care of and handed with care all time. It would be really cool if in 3 to 5 years you are able to buy this tool to work with.
This sounds like it will be pretty revolutionary, especially for do-it-yourselfers like the article mentioned. It would really cut down on the time it takes to make things and would probably lead to more projects being done by people who were previously not comfortable enough with their skills to attempt their own project.
I do wonder how this will be accepted in the professional world though, some will probably jump on it like most new "toys" but i feel like others will just roll their eyes. Especially those who have been involved in wood working for quite sometime, i would think would feel like it takes some of the personal creation process out of it and you might as well buy something at a store that was made by a machine rather than make something by "yourself" that was really just you holding a machine. I equate it to the difference between turning the pages of a printed book in your hand and swiping your finger across a screen filled with pixels in the shape of words.
"You use the new device not by looking down at the wood you’re cutting"
Hmm. Interesting safety concern here. Let's look at the difference between automated CNC router tables and a handheld device such as this one. A CNC router is attached to a solid frame - although not fixed, it holds itself when an irregularity in the stock material is hit or the blade binds or kicks back. Once you put this tool in a user's hands, how can he or she be as aware of the material they are cutting when the tool (hypothetically) corrects itself straight into a rock hard knot that the user is unprepared to tighten their grip for? I agree wholeheartedly with Tiffany on this one. Tracking labels on lumber is relatively impractical on a large scale unless the manufacturers start printing them on to their sheets of ply. I hope this technology gets perfected before in even nears becoming standard.
So I have mixed feeling about this device. First off pretty amazing, watching the video of the gentlemen cutting out the united states is pretty dang cool. No idea what to say besides WOW and the only other machine I know could do that is a CNC routing mill. The technology is pretty amazing.
But of the purest does die inside me a little. Woodworking is a skill and better yet a ark form. Fine woodworking is amazing and the more you work with a medium the more you can tell the skill of a true artist.
Either way technology is going to encompass our lives and continued to be more and more integrated into every part of lives. Woodworking is just the next thing. I think is amazing, would love to use one but i feel we should still remember where we came from.
This is a very interesting development in the world of power tools. The idea that people with small run of the mill (no pun intended) power tools can make as precise cuts as fancy CNC machines is fantastic. I'm not totally sure how this could new technology will effect the world of theatre. Perhaps set and props builders can work faster because they don't need to spend as much time measuring. I know that for my personal projects I often don't have the accuracy I would like or need for projects. The main concern I have with these tools is that the technology may cost more then current tools and thus still out of reach or at least hard to justify for people working on low budgets.
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