Dezeen shares the project of design student Ken Nakagaki, who has adapted a device to work with computer aided design (CAD) software to replicate digital files on paper.
The device, named Comp*pass, uses a mechanism similar to how traditional compass is used to draw a circle. Nakagaki told Dezeen that the original concept came from a sense of feeling curious about how it would feel like to draw a square using a compass.
Using a Bluetooth connection, the device transmits shapes from an electronic device such as a computer or iPhone to be drawn on paper, giving it the same precision as drawings produced using CAD software.
A 3D-printed ABS resin was used to make the prototype device. It contains a rotary encoder to detect the rotation angle, a servomotor to regulate the radius of a pen, LEDs, a switch and a micro controller.
Dezeen has the full story.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Collaboration
9. HOK Takes Videoconferencing to A New Level with its Advanced Collaboration Rooms To help foster collaboration among its 2,212 employees while cutting travel time, expenses, and carbon emissions traveling between its 24 office locations, HOK is fitting out its major offices with prototype videoconferencing rooms that are like no other in the U.
| Aug 11, 2010
2009 Judging Panel
A Matthew H. Johnson, PE Associate Principal Simpson Gumpertz & HegerWaltham, Mass. B K. Nam Shiu, SE, PEVP Walker Restoration Consultants Elgin, Ill. C David P. Callan, PE, CEM, LEED APSVPEnvironmental Systems DesignChicago D Ken Osmun, PA, DBIA, LEED AP Group President, ConstructionWight & Company Darien, Ill.
| Aug 11, 2010
Inspiring Offices: Office Design That Drives Creativity
Office design has always been linked to productivity—how many workers can be reasonably squeezed into a given space—but why isn’t it more frequently linked to creativity? “In general, I don’t think enough people link the design of space to business outcome,” says Janice Linster, partner with the Minneapolis design firm Studio Hive.
| Aug 11, 2010
BIMÂ school, green school: California's newest high-performance school
Nestled deep in the Napa Valley, the city of American Canyon is one of a number of new communities in Northern California that have experienced tremendous growth in the last five years. Located 42 miles northeast of San Francisco, American Canyon had a population of just over 9,000 in 2000; by 2008, that figure stood at 15,276, with 28% of the population under age 18.