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Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

paulbupejr.com

61–70 of 138 posts

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah my thoughts exactly. OTDR is what the optical networking industry uses (for much larger runs of fiber) to find kinks/breaks.

It could still be a novelty if it uses a slightly different method or even materials. Hence why the advice is to get this on the hands of IP experts.

I wasn't commenting on the novelty aspect, I was more wondering in which situations the author's device might be better. Also, the author noted they started with a time of flight sensor, which would have made it extremely similar to OTDR

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#63
post #61

Thanks for sharing your work. Would you be able to compare your device to the fiber optic one used in the data glove (e.g., https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/2464/1/... ).

Isn't this sensor a lot or exactly like how the Powerglove works?

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#64
post #5

That's super cool and I hope you don't mind a little bit of unsolicited feedback but the first question everyone's asking is "what does it do?" At present the blog post starts out with two paragraphs talking about the format of the blog post and the applications but not what the sensor actually measures.

That's basically every other HN article for me. Zero context. "Blorglorp 2024.4.99 released" "With the new version, Blorglorp finally sheds its libgnipgnop dependency and increases efficiency by 1.25%". Bam, top post for the day, lots of multi-paragraph comments, and I'll still never know what it's even for.

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#65
post #61

Thanks for sharing your work. Would you be able to compare your device to the fiber optic one used in the data glove (e.g., https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/2464/1/... ).

Isn't this sensor a lot or exactly like how the Powerglove works?

It's how Jaron Lanier's DataGlove worked. The Power Glove used cheaper flex sensors instead of fiber optics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Glove

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#66
post #5

That's super cool and I hope you don't mind a little bit of unsolicited feedback but the first question everyone's asking is "what does it do?" At present the blog post starts out with two paragraphs talking about the format of the blog post and the applications but not what the sensor actually measures.

One application for shape sensing technology is for surgical robotics. An example: https://www.intuitive.com/en-us/products-and-services/ion/sh...

Relevant patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20240044638A1/

The first time I saw one of these in person I was in awe. You could take a normal looking cable (think bicycle cable sleeve) and bend it and see in real time the same shape on the display.

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#67
This is cool as hell! I hope your PhD continues well, and that this invention serves you in the future.

Do you put any lube on the interface between the silicone sleeve and optical cable? I imagine the bending action will cause displacement, and friction there could rub and/or cause the nominal position to shift around.

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#69
post #64
post #5

That's super cool and I hope you don't mind a little bit of unsolicited feedback but the first question everyone's asking is "what does it do?" At present the blog post starts out with two paragraphs talking about the format of the blog post and the applications but not what the sensor actually measures.

That's basically every other HN article for me. Zero context. "Blorglorp 2024.4.99 released" "With the new version, Blorglorp finally sheds its libgnipgnop dependency and increases efficiency by 1.25%". Bam, top post for the day, lots of multi-paragraph comments, and I'll still never know what it's even for.

The context tends to come some time later, when they close store. "We at Derplabs are proud that we dared to make an opinionated jpeg viewer, Blorglorp, that only interpreted the four first bits of every byte and ignored the rest. Commonly referred to as 'the naughty bits' by image-viewing connoisseurs. Unfortunately the market was not ready, but we are sure our ideas will gain traction in the future. Our deepest gratitude to our customers and investors that were excited to join our journey."
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