Creative Machines Lab - Columbia University
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  • Home
  • About
  • People
  • Research
    • Crystallography
    • Fingerprints
    • Hidden Variables
    • Visual Self Modeling
    • Label Representations
    • Robot Visual Behavior Modeling
    • Particle Robotics
    • Deep Self Modeling
    • Evolutionary Self Modeling
    • Self Replication
    • Laser Cooking
    • Digital Food
    • Soft Actuator
    • Layered Assembly
    • Cellular Machines
    • Inverted Laser Sintering
    • Eureqa
    • Golem
    • Data Smashing
    • Jamming Gripper
    • Soft Robot Evolution
    • Truss Reconfiguration
    • Fluidic Assembly
    • Ornithopters
    • Tensegrity
  • Papers
    • Selected Papers
    • All Papers
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  • Open Source
    • Titan Library
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Creative Machines Lab - Columbia University

cuneiforms

This project started as a collaboration between Professors Hod Lipson and David I. Owen. Owen, the Bernard and Jane Schapiro Professor of Ancient Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, is the curator of Cornell's collection of nearly 10,000 cuneiform tablets from ancient Mesopotamia. Read more about Cornell's tablet collection at Cornell University's Cuneiform Library. Owen and Lipson had the idea of implementing 3D scanning and 3D printing technology to create physical replicas of the tablets that look and feel almost exactly like the originals.
A desktop 3D scanner or a CT Scanner was used to take 3D scans of the tablets. After scanning, the accompanying software, ScanStudio HD was used for post-processing and outputting 3D printable files of the tablets. With the VRML file format, prototypes were made (using ZCorp-type powder-based ink-jet printers) that match the look of the original tablets in color and texture. The software also has the ability to output the files in STL format for creating prints using other printing technologies (FDM, SLA, etc.) that do not retain color and texture matching. The video shows CT Scan of three cuneiforms, including the internal cross-sections of the clay. Note how the conical spiraling suggests that the conical cuneiform was made by rolling.
Picture
Original and 3D-printed cuneiform tablet 46-01-001: Left: original; Middle: 3D-printed reproduction; Right: Enlarged (x2) reproduction. Produced on ZCorp ZPrinter 650
Download VRML File (for color 3D printing)
​Download STL file (for monochrome printing)
Picture
Original and 3D-printed cuneiform tablet 51-07-018: Left: original; Middle: 3D-printed reproduction; Right: Enlarged (x2) reproduction. Produced on ZCorp ZPrinter 650
​Download VRML File (for color 3D printing)
​Download STL file (for monochrome printing)
Picture
3D-printed cuneiform tablets: Left: Enlarged (x2) 3D-printed reproduction; Middle: original size reproduction (produced on Objet printer); Right: original size reproduction (produced on ZCorp ZPrinter 650).
Download STL file (for monochrome printing)

learn more

​Researchers replicate rare cuneiform tablets using 3-D scanning and printing

Project participants

Natasha Gangjee, Evan Malone, Hod Lipson, David I. Owen

Related Publications

​Knapp M., Wolff R., Lipson H. (2008), "Developing printable content: A repository for printable teaching models", Proceedings of the 19th Annual Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, Austin TX, Aug 2008.
Picture