Formlabs’ new automation accessories turn its 3D printers into mini factories

There are plenty of reasons why we’re not yet in a mass-production revolution enabled by 3D printing. One of them is the technology is time-consuming and often forces you to leave a print running overnight without supervision. It means there’s likely plenty of dead time, when a finished print is sat in the hopper, and there’s nobody around to pull it out and get the next one going. It’s a problem that Formlabs is hoping to address with its “Automation Ecosystem,” a family of products you can bolt on to some of its printers to help automate the fiddly bits.

This includes Form Auto, which can remove a printed part from a machine, freeing it up to start on the next one. You can also add a High Volume Resin system which will increase the printers’ raw material capacity up to five liters. And there’s Fleet Control — new software that’ll help manage a fleet of printers, letting you balance the workload across all of your units. The systems are all, naturally, designed for small and medium enterprises who rely upon manufacturing but can’t spare the warm bodies to worry at each printer in turn. (It’ll also come in handy for companies like Hasbro, which is 3D printing people’s heads for its custom action figure line.) 

Formlabs says that the benefits — beyond being able to leave work running unsupervised for longer — include less material wastage and cheaper prints. The company says it expects to see users’ per-print costs fall by anything up to 40 percent, as well as reducing packaging waste. As for pricing, Form Auto will set you back $3,400 (with a year’s free Fleet Control thrown in), with shipping expected to begin in the second half of the year. 

Shiftall launches a high end SteamVR headset and an affordable body tracker for VTubers

Shiftall is a Panasonic company dedicated to building equipment to plunge people deeper into their virtual worlds. That includes the Mutalk (pictured), a mouth-worn Bluetooth microphone designed to prevent your speech from being heard by people in the same room. Here at CES, however, the company has unveiled two new versions of its VR headset as well as some gadgets designed to improve your immersion in the virtual world.

First up, a new version of the MeganeX VR headset, a SteamVR-compatible unit with a 2,560 x 2,560 micro-OLED display. The company says that the screens, combined with Panasonic-branded pancake lenses, offer the “highest level of viewing experience.” In addition, the frame is lightweight, and offers six degrees of freedom, as well as enough comfort to ensure it can be worn without fatigue for hours at a time. But you’ll also need to cough up if you want to use one, since it’ll cost you $1,699 when it launches at some point between March and April.

In addition, the company is showing off two new accessories that’ll offer great benefits for the VTubers amongst you. The first is Haritora X Wireless, a full body tracking solution for SteamVR that enables you to have fully controllable torso and legs in a virtual space. The setup uses four bands, one around your chest, hips, knees and ankles, which give your digital avatar the ability to dance and high kick their way around. This is similar to Sony’s Mocopi motion-tracking setup which add bands to your wrists, ankles and back and head. 

Shiftall
Andrew Tarantola

The other new innovation is Flip VR, a hand controller for SteamVR which uses lighthouse tracking to monitor the position of your hands. But, unlike most normal hand controllers, these are held to the hand by a strap across the palm, rather than being gripped. The top plate, where you’ll find the joystick and action buttons, can be flipped out of the way to free your hand up for other things. In the demo, a user can stop playing, flip the joystick over to the other side of their hand and drink from a can without having to remove their VR gear, or put it down on the floor.

As for pricing, Haritoria X Wireless will set you back $350, although there’s no word yet on when it’ll be available either in Japan or Stateside. As for FlipVR, we’re waiting to hear back on how much it’ll cost, and when we can expect to be able to drink, while in character as a VTuber, without having to drop our controller and ruin the illusion.

Withings’ $500 toilet computer wants to be WebMD for your pee

Withings has already made a name for itself as a maker of smart scales and ultra-stylish activity trackers. Now, the French health-tech company is making a foray into the world of medical analysis, building a device to scan people’s urine. It’s initially intended as a way of supporting decentralized clinical trials, the company hopes to offer it as a consumer health-tech device in the future. Say hello to U-Scan.

U-Scan is a pebble-shaped device that hangs from a plastic tab on the side of your toilet bowl, much like a deodorizer block. The hardware, 90mm in diameter, is intended to sit on the porcelain where most people’s pee streams would land. There’s a collection inlet at the lowest point, and a sensor will detect the presence of urine and trigger a pump you pull a small quantity into its body. From there, the sample is pumped into a microfluidic system which triggers a chemical reaction.

Image of the microfluidic cartridge found inside Withings' U-Scan
Daniel Cooper

(This microfluidic system is a little like the litmus test-esque strips you’ll have seen a doctor use when testing your pee. As you can see from the picture, these are far smaller, but the reaction changes the color of the paper, which is then read by the device’s scanner. This should, for instance, be able to make binary conclusions about substances present in your waste.)

Sitting underneath the U-Scan itself will be a cartridge, which contains the specific test that you’re looking for. The company has, so far, partnered with two medical centers in Europe to explore ways of discovering renal lithiasis and bladder cancer. It’s hoped that the system will eventually be used to mass-screen for cancer markers and support medical studies.

In terms of the consumer units, the company has developed U-Scan Cycle Sync, designed to be used for period tracking. The idea is to provide detailed, regular testing to enable fine-grain cycle tracking without the need for calendar apps. As well as predicting your menstrual cycle, the system says it’ll predict your ovulation window, hydration levels and nutrient levels.

Image of a NutriBalance cartridge inside Withings' new U-Scan.
Daniel Cooper

The other is U-Scan Nutri Balance, which offers a “detailed metabolic guide to hydration and nutrition.” This will look at your water balance, nutrient levels, fat metabolism and quantities of vitamin C found in your pee. Most crucially, you’ll be able to monitor your ketone levels, as well as the pH of your urine, good for determining if you’re eating a healthy enough diet.

When processed, the results of the tests are shared to a server over WiFi or Bluetooth, and then the cartridge will reset with a fresh test pod. The company says that U-Scan is sufficiently smart to distinguish different users, such as various family members in a home, and separate tests accordingly.

Image of Withings U Scan
Daniel Cooper

Withings has also said that its system conforms to the highest security standards, and that its data will always be held in France, in a GDPR-compliant setup. It says that U-Scan will run for three months before needing a recharge (over USB-C) and a replacement cartridge.

In terms of pricing, and availability, you’ll expect that whatever date Withings says, it may be delayed due to regulatory approvals. The company says that U-Scan will be first made available in Europe at some point in Q2, 2023, with the Nutri Balance and Cycle Sync cartridges. A starter kit, with one reader and cartridge, will be priced at €499.95 ($530), while replacement cartridges are expected to cost €30 ($31). A US release will take place at some point afterward, whenever the FDA decides to clear the product for consumer use.

Acer simplifies its Swift laptop lineup for 2023

No shade on Acer before now, but I’ve always found its laptop naming scheme to be a little bit obtuse. For instance, can you tell me the qualitative difference between Acer’s Swift 3 and Swift 5 without looking? To address this, the company has dumped …