Imagine this; you are sitting in a room with a NeuroSky electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor pressing against your temple and forehead. Across from you is a TV screen that is showing abstract shapes as they swell and mutate in 4K resolution.

All the while you are sitting there, a computer is measuring your brain activity and mapping it as a 3D model. Initially, the model looks a lot like a piece of paper with a flat surface. However, that doesn’t last long because as soon as your brainwaves register a sense of concentration, a dimple appears on the surface. Next, when feeling a sense of calmness, the surface is pushed upward into a peak. Since emotions can’t be measured, intensities are used instead.

This is just the first step in artist Ion Popian’s art project, Mental Fabrications that turns brain maps into 3D objects.

The maps are edited in a 3D modeling program where Popian and his programmer, Thomas Martinez, convert the data into a smooth, rippling landscape that is then 3D-printed. Once it’s printed, it essentially creates a tangible model of your mind. So, in essence, your mind is a piece of art.

Popian wants to turn the models into something that is more three-dimensional by morphing them into free-standing figures rather than the rolling planes.

This innovative usage of 3D technology shows that even art has the capability to find solutions to common problems. The problem at hand, as described by Popian, is that in architecture, emotion doesn’t usually factor in to how a structure is designed. Popian also says, “Architecture has a visual impact on whoever occupies it, which produces emotion.” The EEG technology could potentially affect how buildings in the future are designed. Because, as he explains,  if the subconscious relationships of people as they experience spaces like a hospital or airport are mapped, then there is the chance that architecture could be designed in order to be responsive to them.

Without further ado, here is a video of this innovative invention at work!

Copyright Davison 2014

Sources:

http://mashable.com/2014/04/03/3d-printing-brain-scans/

Media:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/12/5496656/mental-fabrications-3d-printed-brain-scans-art

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The full design suite consists of five apps. The first of which is 123D catch, available online, for iOS, and for download. This app allows users to take twenty to forty photos from various angles, and upload them to Autodesk’s cloud to generate three dimensional models. An iPhone or iPad simplifies the process. The model is then sent back to the user for editing, uploading to their site, or 3D printing. The desktop and web version allow the user to edit and cleanup their models. Below you’ll find one that we shot and edited right here in Inventionland.

123D Creature is an iPad exclusive app designed to allow children and adults alike to create the monstrosity of their dreams with relative ease. It starts with a simple skeleton creator where users lay out the basic anatomy of their creature in digital clay. Once finished, a creature can be painted or adorned with decals and textures from the user’s iPad photo library. Finally, the creature can be put in an environment with customizable lighting, shadows, filters, and backgrounds. For those without access to a 3D printer, with just a few swipes of the finger, users can have a 3D print delivered to their doorstep. 123D Sculpt uses the same type of “clay modeling’ that 123D Creature does, but with unlimited freedom to create anything the imagination desires.

They’ve also released a free 3D modeling tool, 123D Design. It’s all about designing models by using complex tools to create anything you can think of. Like most of the other apps, it comes with models to get users started.

“Someone who’s brand new and doesn’t know how to work in 3D can start with this stuff and learn how to assemble things,” Christian Pramuk, 123D’s apps product manager at Autodesk, told Mashable. “You can be a complete novice, or you can delve into it and get quite a bit done.”

The app has a number of built-in shapes to help users get started, and offers pre-loaded “kits,” such as a robot kit that helps build your own robot with predesigned parts that can be resized or customized to meet users’ personal preferences.

Autodesk refers to the last program in the suite “DIY Joy.” If you don’t have access to a 3D printer, or you don’t want to send your creation to Autodesk to be printed, all it takes is a home computer, iOS device, a regular printer, or even some cardboard, scissors, and glue to bring your creations to life. Using any of the 3D models that users create in any of the other programs, or ones found on the web, 123D Make slices and sections projects so that they can be printed out on paper, then traced to cardboard, wood, acrylic, or any other material that the user wants, and glued together to create finished models.

All programs can be downloaded at 123dapp.com

http://mashable.com/2012/03/22/autodesk-3d-printing-ipad/

http://mashable.com/2012/11/07/123d-design-autodesk/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/14/autodesk-123d-creatures-lets-you-create-monsters-on-your-ipad/

http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/13/autodesk-releases-123d-creature-a-tool-to-design-paint-and-print-your-own-3d-monsters/

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/48435/autodesk-123d-design-app-review+&cd=21&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

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