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Description of your idea:

Tons of feedstock material is wasted during 3D printing process every day. Currently, there is no compelling technology for optimum recycling of these leftover materials because many applications require to use fresh feedstock only. However, I believe that recycled materials (e.g. plastic or polymers) could be used to promote equality and happiness among the society.

For instance, to produce art works where the freshness of the powder is not as important as it is in sectors like biomedical or aviation industry.

My uncle was blind and an art enthusiast but he couldn’t see and enjoy the beauty of portraits or landscapes and I was always describing the paintings to him. But now with 3D printing technology and using recyclable materials, we can produce engraved versions of flat portraits and paintings which the blind people can touch, imagine and feel the beauty themselves.  This is what I call “3D-PAINTINGs”. 3D-PAINTING aims to provide graphic materials to the blind community, to enhance their self-confidence and self-learning beside enjoying the art which every person has a right to enjoy of. I aim to 3D print the paintings to serve the blind community in our society who want to enjoy art but cant see them. 3D paintings could be for cultural and art enjoyment at first but can also be a way to promote the education of impaired communities in future. According to the 2016 census, there are 54,810 people in Ireland who are blind or visually impaired and the number is rising. 3D-PAINTING converts 2D images to 3D printed art paintings which has length, width, depth and texture. The 3D-PAINTINGs do not need to be colored as it is printed for blind people.

When the blind person touches the 3D-PAINTING, the brain received the information from the skin as similar as it comes from the eyes which enables the blind to imagine the painting like it’s really seen. This allows them to sense it by their own and they get to enjoy it by themselves and that enhances their self-confidence and freedom as well as promotes equality. Empowering every individual of the people in Ireland, including the blind community would enhance their creativity to reach their full potential. At the same time, this technology promotes materials sustainability and reduces the waste to the environment which makes the 3D printing an environmental-friendly green technology.

In order to make the printed painting more understandable for the blind people, we will also print some Braille letters will small dots on every section of the paint. Braille is the language of the blind people which is shown by small dots. This makes the 3D-painting more readable for impaired persons