Paper Prototyping And Prospects Of Development Of 3D Printing.
Paper prototyping - is one of the methods of rapid prototyping. Prototypes are drawn schematically on paper by hand or printed on the printer. Paper prototype - is a set of screens and controls sufficient to illustrate the behavior of the system and user scenarios for solving typical problems.
The main advantages.
This is the fastest way to create prototypes. The hand draws on the paper much faster than on the screen.
It is painted generalized abstract essence of the interface, but it is also a good way to fix quickly the idea coming to mind.
The prototypes on paper can and should be tested (You can show it to the user and the programmer, and learn the views of those and others), as a result - the cheapest usability testing.
No need to know in detail the programming language (Delphi / Basic / html / etc.).
Anyone who knows how to handle a pencil and paper can easily create a prototype.
It is easy to change the prototype or draw a new one.
Major weaknesses.
Prototypes of the paper are not ideal for all situations.
Working with a prototype on paper may not correspond exactly to the way in which the user will work with real system.
Prospects for the development of 3D printing.
This technology is already saving a lot of time and efforts of designers and engineers. Perhaps in the near future prototyping becomes available at the household level, or as an inexpensive service that everyone could benefit. There will be enough to draw a model to determine the material and send the order via the internet. It's called Distance Manufacturing on Demand. In future this technology will become mass - and then everyone at the table will have his personal mechanic small factory, replacing an ordinary production in the little things, just as printers replaced typographies and typists.
Developments in the field of prototyping are produced constantly, so periodically we can expect something new and unexpected. For example, a group of scientists from the University of California at Berkeley is developing a three-dimensional printing technology, which would simultaneously create the shape and content. Under the content it means - electronic filling. For example, the printer prints a body of mobile phone made of plastic and at the same time types all the electronics inside. In principle, there are already ways of printing plastic semiconductor devices and connecting cables. It remains only to combine them with existing technologies of 3D-printer and it will be a revolutionary breakthrough in modern manufacturing.
Another example is the engineering of the University of Missouri, allowing with the help of ink jet printer to print peculiar blanks of biological bodies. As the ink it is used clusters of cells of a given type. Instead of "paper" there is a special bio-gel, which records the location of cell clusters in space. Printing is performed in several layers; as a result it is obtained volumetric structure of cells, which in principle can simulate any body (after the cells grew up, the gel dissolves, so it is possible to obtain hollow structures). Of course, printing of the full body for transplantation seems too difficult yet, but the work is going.
Over the recent decades rapid prototyping services managed with solving lots of tech problems happening when trying to show a product, design or model. Have you come across such a problem too? Then you are welcomed to visit this rapid prototyping methodology site.
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