Our smartphones read our text messages to us and respond to our verbal commands, already we tend to think nothing of it. It was but a few decades ago that text to speech became a functionally useful reality. Now, technological progress has reached the point where text-to-3D is with us. BrainDistrict has created an in-depth 3D rendering and modelling package called Text-to-3D (TT3D) within its RaySupreme Computer Aided Design program as an accessibility solution with a range of applications. Words input become visual 3D output.
Accessibility to 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) is one of the most cited obstacles to the proliferation of desktop 3D printing. On one hand there are myriad three dimensional file repositories out there with huge numbers of free files to download and 3D print. The most populated of these, Thingiverse and Sketchfab, contain over 100,000. On the other hand, when a desktop 3D printer user wishes to create a design themselves, current 3D CAD / Design software ranges from simple (less functional) programs that a person can pick up within a few days, to complex, engineering programmes that are virtually inaccessible for the masses who simply do not have the time to engage in learning.
Positively, the past few years have seen many innovative solutions to this problem: from lego style building blocks to direct motion extrusion, parametric input to web based G-Code. Now, BrainDistrict is creating a niche for rendering 3D visuals by text.Before we delve into the interesting and innovative technology that facilitates everything from rendering a book into visualisations to creating 3D printable output with mere words, let’s take a journey back through time to the origins of creating devices that turn one form of communication into another.
In 1769, author and inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen began work on a functional mechanical representational model of the human vocal tract. In 1791 he published “The Mechanism of Human Speech with a Description of a Speaking Machine.” Soon after the completion and exhibition of his Speaking Machine von Kempelen died, in 1804. In 1837, Sir Charles Wheatstone resurrected his work by creating an improved replica of his Speaking Machine. Wheatstone was able to further analyse and synthesize components of acoustic speech, giving rise to a second wave of interest and study in the field of phonetics. After viewing Wheatstone’s improved replica of the Speaking Machine at an exposition, Alexander Graham Bell set out to construct his own speaking machine. Bell’s experiments and research ultimately led to his invention of the telephone in 1876.
In the 1930s, Bell Labs developed the vocoder, which automatically analyzed speech into its fundamental tone and resonances. From his work on the vocoder, Homer Dudley developed a keyboard-operated voice synthesizer called The Voder (Voice Demonstrator), which he exhibited at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
Ray Kurzweil, one of the world’s most famous futurists and recently a lead in engineering at Google, made his first marks with the Kurzweil Reading Machine, introduced in 1976. The machine included the first omni-font Optical Character Recognition software and was able to scan lines of text, one at a time, to recognise each character as it passed and then correct the order of the characters in its memory, determine the pronunciation of the resultant words according to pre-programmed phonological rules and articulate those words through a speech synthesizer. It has been called the first commercial product to use artificial intelligence technology successfully.
The MITalk system emerged in the 1980’s and 1990’s, mainly thanks to Dennis Klatt at MIT. It was one of the first multilingual language-independent systems, making extensive use of natural language processing methods. Today we have everything from instant web-based language-to-language translation, to cars that respond to our verbal instructions, and much more.
BrainDistrict GmbH has developed Text-to-3D as an innovative technology to empower everyone to create high quality 3D images, 3D objects, and, they suggest, entire 3D worlds, by simply typing or talking simple text or voice commands across the web, desktop, smartphones, tablets and televisions.
TT3D is part of BrainDistrict’s sophisticated 3D rendering and modelling package named RaySupreme — a development solution for text-enabled objects and materials. In terms of interface, depth of design capacity and breadth of functionality it resides, in my humble opinion, above Tinkercad, Sketchup, 3DTin and similar, but below Solidworks, 3Data Expert and Autodesk’s higher-end CAD products, perhaps around the capacity and functional breadth of Blender.
Text-to-3D features include:
• Specific types and styles of objects can be chosen based upon the descriptions used.
• Models can be customized by using adjectives to further describe them.
• Models can be built from different materials based upon the user’s whim.
• The content changes based on date, time and cultural settings.
Design features include:
• Polygon-based modelling with a full range of tools and features.
• Subdivision can be applied to base forms and can be toggled on/off for flexible workflow.
• Time-saving productivity tools like Boolean operations, Bend, Lathe, Extrude and Shell.
• Optimization and Correction tools like Global Remesh, Mesh Triangulation, Fill Holes, etc.
• Snap and Alignment system to aid in precision and fast editing.
• Growing and expanding library of Materials available for download.
• Materials can be altered and influenced by the user’s English descriptions.
• Up to 32 Materials per mesh.
• UV Mapping and Unwrapping via integrated tools.
• Fully integrated UV Paint Tool allows for texture creation right inside RaySupreme.
• UV Paint Tool includes a wide range of Tools, including vectors, brushes, paths, filters and gradients.
• Fractal, Noise and Pattern Generators which can be directly manipulated in Text-to-3D Engine.
• Flexible and powerful Node System supports the Text-to-3D Engine.
• Import data from other applications in multiple formats.
Or, if you prefer you words in a spoken visual format, here is a video overview of RaySupreme’s features:
RaySupreme is a full-featured 3D modelling and rendering software that introduces new innovative technologies and cost effective at $39.99. RaySupreme is available for Mac OS X, Windows 7 / 8 and Linux operating systems.
