Downloading Designs: A Pinhole Camera
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 05.26.06
When we wrote about D.E. Seller's bookcase, commenter Chs suggested "I love the idea of farming out the design to local fab shops though. You pick out a plywood of your choice, and your local router-table, water-jet, or laser fabrication shop punches one out for you. would almost completely eliminate the energy and costs associated with shipping. mighty green indeed." We thought what an interesting idea- designers produce an object, publish the plans and we print it out and assemble it, like IKEA without the roof-rack or the trip to the big store, just download your sofa. The same day we saw this great pinhole camera design where you download and print the PDF, follow the instructions (watch the flash movie, it is wonderful) load the film and you have a working camera. The economic model has a few holes but this could be the future. After all they are printing circuit boards on inkjet printers, the next version may be digital. ::Lighthouse in a Tree via ::Gizmodo
Hi great idea !
In fact there is no business model behind this camera except a nice marketing idea to promote this online gallery that sell famous french photographers fine art prints.
Replicating Rapid-Prototyper.
when fablabs get more affordable this will become a much more enticing prospect. We're going to have to build an open source economic model around this... the sooner we start thinking about how it's going to work the better.
Mosre sophisticated then the way we use to make pinhole cameras - we'd recycle an empty cylindrical oatmeal box, cut a hole in it and cover the hole with a piece of aluminum foil. Then we'd punch the pinhole in the aluminum foil and arrange a cardboard flap in front of it with tape to keep light out when we didn't want to expose film. We'd then tape a piece of film on the inside of the box ( in a darkroom) put the top on the oatmeal box, and we were ready to go.
I've always thought that when you buy a "designer" item, you're really paying for the design, not even the specific materials or the enormous cost (in energy and environmental impact) of shipping it from some overseas factory to your local store. Relocalizing manufacturing is going to be a hallmark of the 21st century; you'll download the plans from Ikea for a fee, then have your neighborhood assembly shop make it for you out of sustainable, locally-sourced materials. Look for these jobs to become more important in local economies: carpenters; metalworkers; cabinetmakers; CNC programmers, toolmakers and tool maintainers; manufacturing engineers; upholsterers; rug-weavers; and so on. I'm personally betting on relocalized, high-tech tailor shops that use laser-scan measurements, CNC cutting, and hand-finishing.
AJ & others,
Industry has actually done that for years.
For example, if an Asian car company wants to start selling their popular Asian model in the US, they may send all their tooling and assembly drawings to local fabrication shops in the US, and hire a local company to set up an assembly plant for them. Major parts will be made in the US, and assembled - usually in a central location - so that the majority of the car was made with local materials and labor.