Create 3-D Objects With The Wave Of Your Hand

For an experienced potter, making a vase or jug is easy. But, for amateur potters, what looks easy can actually be very difficult.

Now mechanical engineers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. and a tech company called Zero UI have developed a new tool that uses hand movements to create works of art.

The program is called zPots. To create the pots without touching a piece of clay, a camera recognizes hand movements. An onscreen hand moves in sync to create 3-D computer models.

“It can track finger movements at millimeter levels, and you get very accurate data in terms of how your fingers and hands are moving,” said Karthik Ramani, a mechanical engineer at Purdue.

A pot can be transformed and shaped by selecting pottery tools like a carving knife, a paint brush, and a smoothing tool. Simple hand gestures are used to grab each tool to carve and mold a masterpiece practically out of thin air.

“Anybody can make beautiful things you don’t have to be an expert potter, if you mess up you can change it or you can throw it away,” said Ramani.

After the work of art is rendered onscreen, it can be printed on a 3-D printer. Researchers say the program could be used in almost anything that needs to be designed or made.

“So it can open it up to architecture, landscape designers…gamers, pretty much anybody who wants to make stuff,” Ramani said.

The software zPots is available to the public as a free app through the company Leap Motion.

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C Design Lab at Purdue University

Karthik Ramani , Purdue University