Future Links May 18th 2015

13-year-old works with Microsoft for braille printer
A 13-year-old Indian-origin boy has invented a low-cost portable Braille printer and is now working with Microsoft to integrate it with Windows to make it easily accessible to the visually impaired. Shubham Banerjee, an eighth-grade student in California, is aiming for a price of 500 dollars or less for the printer to ensure affordability for organizations.
More at Jangran Post

Heidelberg to launch new digital front end
Heidelberg will launch its Digital Front End interface at a specialist open house that will take place in its national showroom in Brentford on 17^th June. The Digital Front End interface has been designed for the new Ricoh-manufactured Linoprint digital press products. The company wants to give users the ability to compose or makeready work in the offset fashion they’re used to.
More at Print Week

Multi-sensory labels bring new beverage brand to life
Packaging doesn’t have to use electronics to be interactive and to enhance the consumer’s experience. Anheuser-Busch InBev recently launched Oculto, a tequila flavored beer infused with blue agave using labels produced by Constantia Flexibles Labels Division. The back label incorporates thermochromic ink which changes color with temperature variation. At room temperature the labels feature blue agave leaves, when cold the design transforms to reveal eyes.
More at Labels and Labeling

NASA challenges public to 3D print space habitats
3D printing is not only going to make life on earth more efficient but most likely in space as well. Last year, the first ever 3D printer traveled into space and brought back printed objects from the International Space Station. Now, NASA and America Makes have announced a competition asking participants to create architectural concepts that take advantage of the unique capabilities of 3D printing. With this, they want to tackle the problem that to really inhabit other planets we can’t really bring the large machinery needed to build traditional houses.
More at 3D Print

Researchers develop new technique for printing joint cartilage
Bioprinting may be the solution for organ replacements in cases where there is no donor available in a life or death situation. Researchers at the Technische Universität München investigated a new method that utilizes a combination of microfiber scaffolding and hydrogels to create cartilage structures that offer both similar stiffness and elasticity to existing human-produced knee-joint cartilage.
More at 3Ders

A new age of clothing
So far, the 3D printing we’ve seen in fashion was more or less limited to stiff nylon dresses and plastic assemblies that are more ornamental than actually wearable. The Electroloom printer recently launched on Kickstarter wants to change that. It creates a non-woven digitally designed textile that flexes, folds and flows just like any other woven textile.
More at 3D Printing Industry

OKI develops mass-production technology for printed circuit boards
Increasingly, printed circuit boards need advanced heat-dissipating structures to more efficiently conduct heat generated by electronic components. OKI Circuit Technology has developed design and mass production technologies for multi-layer printed circuit boards that support high speeds and high frequencies based on copper coin insertion. The new technology achieves a 20-fold improvement in heat dissipation over existing technologies, says the company.
More at OKI

DuPont announces Packaging Innovation Award Winners
This year, the DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation saw a lot of packaging designs that added intuitive functionality in a way that was both simple and meaningful for the user. The highest honor, the Diamond Award, was awarded to Canada-based IPL, Inc., for their SkinnyPack Technology. This is a mono-material package that combines flexible and rigid packaging to create a thin, light, strong structure that uses less material, enables recycling and allows more message space.
More at TRJ Marketing