Disney develops 3D-printed lighting for toys

Toy with eyes that show different shapes Disney said the use of 3D-printed parts meant it could test new types of toys at a much faster rate than before

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The firm's researchers are working on a range of techniques including "light pipes" and tubes of enclosed air that can be made to glow in controlled ways.

They say that 3D printers can create objects with "micron accuracy" that would otherwise be more complicated and costly to build.



Light-hardened polymer


"We envision a future world where interactive devices can be printed rather than assembled," wrote the team.

Toy with hollow tubes Disney built hollow tubes into one toys' centre which could be illuminated to make it look like it was beating




Hollow tubes



Devil toy with built0in light pipes The engineers used light pipes to create a toy with eyes that could express different emotions

Another example involved creating "light pipes" as a 3D-printed alternative to optical fibre.

The engineers said the pipes could be easily shaped to fit a toy's specific form, with joints placed at specific places allowing them to be linked to other light pipes. They said this would have been much harder to achieve with traditional fibre.

The Disney team used a series of these pipes to funnel light up from the base of a toy demon into its eyes. Engineers could control which bits of the eyes were illuminated in a specific colour, to make the toy appear as if it was rolling its eyeballs, blinking, or showing two small throbbing hearts.

The team also showed how a large number of light pipes could be used to form a kind of dot matrix display. By controlling which pipe received light at any one time they were were able to make text and numbers glow through the sides of the bases of specially constructed chess pieces.

They suggested the technique could be used to show the pieces' location and a suggested move during a game.

'Overcome setbacks'



Chess pieces with built-in light pipes The engineers were able to create a text display on the side of chess pieces by building light pipes into their interior

But one industry watcher had doubts.

"The toy industry will always look to see if it can use technology to enhance the 'wow factor'," John Baulch, publisher of Toy World magazine, told the BBC.




File-sharing site The Pirate Bay already hosts a limited number of 3D file blueprints and has claimed "physibles" would be the "next step in copying".

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