Avi Reichental: What’s next in 3D printing

My grandfather was a cobbler.

Back in the day, he made custom-made shoes.

I never got to meet him.

He perished in the Holocaust.

But I did inherit his love for making,

except that it doesn't exist that much anymore.

You see, while the Industrial Revolution

did a great deal to improve humanity,

it eradicated the very skill

that my grandfather loved,

and it atrophied craftsmanship as we know it.

But all of that is about to change with 3D printing,

and it all started with this,

the very first part

that was ever printed.

It's a little older than TED.

It was printed in 1983

by Chuck Hull,

who invented 3D printing.

But the thing that I want to talk to you about today,

the big idea that I want to discuss with you,

is not that 3D printing

is going to catapult us into the future,

but rather that it's actually going

to connect us with our heritage,

and it's going to usher in a new era

of localized, distributed manufacturing

that is actually based

on digital fabrication.

So think about useful things.

You all know your shoe size.

How many of you know the size

of the bridge of your nose

or the distance between your temples?

Anybody?

Wouldn't it be awesome if you could,

for the first time, get eyewear

that actually fits you perfectly

and doesn't require any hinge assembly,

so chances are, the hinges are not going to break?

But the implications of 3D printing

go well beyond the tips of our noses.

When I met Amanda for the first time,

she could already stand up and walk a little bit

even though she was paralyzed from the waist down,

but she complained to me that her suit

was uncomfortable.

It was a beautiful robotic suit

made by Ekso Bionics,

but it wasn't inspired by her body.

It wasn't made to measure.

So she challenged me to make her something

that was a little bit more feminine,

a little bit more elegant,

and lightweight,

and like good tailors,

we thought that we would measure her digitally.

And we did. We built her an amazing suit.

The incredible part about what I learned

from Amanda is a lot of us are looking at 3D printing

and we say to ourselves,

it's going to replace traditional methods.

Amanda looked at it and she said,

it's an opportunity for me

to reclaim my symmetry

and to embrace my authenticity.

And you know what? She's not standing still.

She now wants to walk in high heels.

It doesn't stop there.

3D printing is changing

personalized medical devices as we know them,

from new, beautiful, conformal,

ventilated scoliosis braces

to millions of dental restorations

and to beautiful bracings

for amputees,

another opportunity to emotionally reconnect

with your symmetry.

And as we sit here today,

you can go wireless on your braces

with clear aligners,

or your dental restorations.

Millions of in-the-ear hearing aids

are already 3D printed today.

Millions of people are served today

from these devices.

What about full knee replacements,

from your data, made to measure,

where all of the tools and guides are 3D printed?

G.E. is using 3D printing

to make the next generation LEAP engine

that will save fuel to the tune

of about 15 percent

and cost for an airline

of about 14 million dollars.

Good for G.E., right?

And their customers and the environment.

But, you know, the even better news

is that this technology is no longer reserved

for deep-pocketed corporations.

Planetary Resources, a startup

for space explorations

is going to put out its first space probe later this year.

It was a fraction of a NASA spaceship,

it costs a fraction of its cost,

and it's made with less than a dozen moving parts,

and it's going to be out in space later this year.

Google is taking on this very audacious project

of making the block phone, the Ara.

It's only possible because of the development

of high-speed 3D printing that for the first time

will make functional, usable modules

that will go into it.

A real moonshot, powered by 3D printing.

How about food?

What if we could, for the first time,

make incredible delectables

like this beautiful TED Teddy here,

that are edible?

What if we could completely change the experience,

like you see with that absinthe serving

that is completely 3D printed?

And what if we could begin to put ingredients

and colors and flavors in every taste,

which means not only delicious foods

but the promise of personalized nutrition

around the corner?

And that gets me to one of the biggest deals about 3D printing.

With 3D printing, complexity is free.

The printer doesn't care

if it makes the most rudimentary shape

or the most complex shape,

and that is completely turning design

and manufacturing on its head as we know it.

Many people think that 3D printing will be

the end of manufacturing as we know it.

I think that it's the opportunity to put

tomorrow's technology in the hands of youngsters

that will create endless abundance

of job opportunities,

and with that,

everybody can become an expert maker

and an expert manufacturer.

That will take new tools.

Not everybody knows how to use CAD,

so we're developing haptics,

perceptual devices

that will allow you to touch

and feel your designs

as if you play with digital clay.

When you do things like that,

and we also developed things that take

physical photographs that are instantly printable,

it will make it easier to create content,

but with all of the unimagined,

we will also have the unintended,

like democratized counterfeiting

and ubiquitous illegal possession.

So many people ask me,

will we have a 3D printer in every home?

I think it's the wrong question to ask.

The right question to ask is,

how will 3D printing change my life?

Or, in other words, what room in my house

will 3D printing fit in?

So everything that you see here

has been 3D printed,

including these shoes

at the Amsterdam fashion show.

Now, these are not my grandfather's shoes.

These are shoes that represent

the continuation of his passion

for hyper-local manufacturing.

My grandfather didn't get to see Nike

printing cleats for the recent Super Bowl,

and my father didn't get to see me standing

in my hybridized 3D printed shoes.

He passed away three years ago.

But Chuck Hull, the man that invented it all,

is right here in the house today,

and thanks to him,

I can say, thanks to his invention, I can say

that I am a cobbler too,

and by standing in these shoes

I am honoring my past

while manufacturing the future.

Thank you.

(Applause)