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This cheap 3D-printed home is a start for the 1 billion who lack shelter Printed by Vulcans on planet Earth Food, water, and shelter are basic human needs, but 1.2 billion people in the world live without adequate housing,  according to a report  by the World Resources Institute’s Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. Today at SXSW, an Austin-based startup will unveil its approach to combat that deficiency by using low-cost 3D printing as a potential solution. ICON  has developed a method for printing a single-story 650-square-foot house out of cement in only 12 to 24 hours, a fraction of the time it takes for new construction. If all goes according to plan, a community made up of about 100 homes will be constructed for residents in El Salvador next year. The company has partnered with  New Story , a nonprofit that is vested in international housing solutions. “We have been building homes for communities in Haiti, El Salvador, and Bolivia,” Alexan...

A Russian engineer with physical impairment has designed and developed an Iron-Man style arm. Maxim Lyashko and his team recently illustrated their vision for hi-tech yet affordable prostheses through a bionic arm developed in his lab in Moscow. The invention called Max-Bionic is believed to be the country’s first 3D printed bionic arm. Lyashko lost his arm during an accident in 2013 that prompted him to come up with a cheaper option than prosthetics developed in other countries. The bionic arm can be operated via an external power source and through what is called “phantom management”. This means that the prosthesis is programmed to respond to a person’s thoughts with the movement they intend to create.  The developer is also proud of how autonomous the whole production process has been. The prosthesis is rated at 15-hundred dollars while foreign products with the same function cost 25-thousand dollars and higher.