In our childhood we have had candies and cakes that is in shape of our favourite cartoon characters or animals, like, bears. Now that 3D printing technology gives you the entire freedom to design things like the way you wish, how would you like to have your own face printed on your pancake?
UK based design & product development company, Kinneir Dufort has come up with something fascinating as above. It created a 3D printing machine that uses facial recognition and 3d printing technology to create pancakes that can have your facial image and your name on it.
The machine has an embedded face recognition and a tracking software and with that it dispenses the batter onto a hot layer plate layer by layer and since it is hot you can figure that the cooking already starts taking place immediately. And to make sure that the machine is giving the correct result “a delicate balance between batter viscosity, speed of application and maintaining the correct temperature on the plate.”
Kinneir Dufort senior electronic designer James Torbett said: “The technology uses a digital camera combined with image processing libraries to perform face tracking and extraction.” He added, “Our bespoke software turns this into contours for the batter dispenser. The darkest areas are deposited first, through four distinct shades to the lightest areas.”
Director, Ian Hollister, explains, “The real challenge was to create a program that enables the picture to be completed from start to finish within the exact timescale for the overall pancake to cook. Too little time and the darker tones wouldn’t be achieved, too long and the pancake would burn”.
3D printing anything is already too much fun to watch, and on top of that a machine that can make a 3D printed pancake with your face on it, it cannot be more fun and exciting.
