Patent · US Active

Methods and apparatus for 3D printing of point cloud data

US10259164B2 · kind B2 · utility

33Cited by

8References

14Claims

0Family size

Inventors

Christoph Bader · Altbach, DE
Dominik Kolb · Leutkirch im Allgäu, DE
Neri Oxman · Cambridge, US
James Weaver · Corvallis, US

Key dates

Filing date	Jun 20, 2017
Grant date	Apr 16, 2019
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Oct 17, 2037

Classification

Technology area (CPC G)Physics
CPC primaryG05B2219/32024
WIPO fieldOther special machines
WIPO sectorMechanical engineering

Abstract

An unorganized point cloud may be created by an optical 3D scanner that scans a physical object, or by computer simulation. The point cloud may be converted into binary raster layers, which encode material deposition instructions for a multi-material 3D printer. In many cases, this conversion—from point cloud to binary raster files—is achieved without producing a 3D voxel representation and without producing a boundary representation of the object to be printed. The conversion may involve spatial queries to find nearby points, filtering material properties of the found points, looking up material mixing ratios, and dithering to produce binary raster files. These raster files may be sent to a multi-material 3D printer to control fabrication of an object. A user interface may display a preview of the object to be printed, and may accept user input to create or modify a point cloud.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.