Tactile Picturea

I figured out how to take any picture and make a 3D print of it so my daughter can feel it.  It's complicated, involving many steps, but once I got all the details worked out, it's not that complicated.   I've been talking to my daughter's VI teacher about it because if I can get this into an easily repeatable process anyone with a 3D printer can follow, it will be a tool that's accessible to people who have a 3D printer. 

The reason that's interesting is that 3D printers are fairly inexpensive at just over a hundred dollars in some cases.  Filament is inexpensive and the printer is useful for more than just printing pictures.  The comparable technology is easy to use, but it's expensive and requires a medium to raise anything black on the page to a level that a blind person can discern. 

I can take any image and convert it into a thin yet three-dimensional model.   Taking that and compressing it to the right kind of flatness is a bit of a trick.   But I'm getting better at it.  The colors on the pictures need to be eliminated as well as the interior or filled parts of each image.   But I'm getting better at guessing what to do so the final model is what I'm wanting. 

If this works, well, I'm excited about it.   The only tricky part is you're printing on paper.   The paper can easily withstand the quick heat as the nozzle deposits the filament on the page, but it's not something I want to share on social media until I have a better way to print the pictures.  

We thought parchment paper would be a good idea, but nothing sticks to it.  I can't tape or glue the paper onto the build sheet and the melted filament just glides off.   So I need another plan.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Tonight I printed a picture of the two main characters in the book series my daughter is currently obsessed with.   I hope she's as excited as I am when I show it to her tomorrow. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has moved back into his bedroom.  The mound of stuffed animals is now on the top bunk and he can sleep in his bed with some room for his body to fit.  He insisted he wanted all the stuffed animals in his bed, that he could sleep with them no problem.   It turned out to be a problem.