Dita Von Teese Flaunts the First 3D-Printed Dress

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You’re looking at the first fully articulated 3D-printed dress. Printed off at Shapeways, the piece was designed by Michael Schmidt and Francis Bitoni specifically for burlesque star Dita Von Teese. In the future, this is the kind of clothing you might be able to get from a department store.

Sprinkled with 13,0000 Swarovski crystals, the dress is made from from 17 different pieces and 3000 joints, so it moves like a regular old dress. Von Teese debuted the dress Monday night at a private runway event, and boy, does she make that futuristic frock look good.

More broadly, 3D printing is a really exciting concept for the fashion industry. At Paris Fashion week in January, designer Iris van Herpen sent some amazing 3D-printed sheaths down the catwalk, and sure they’re high-fashion and formal, but they look like something you might actually want to wear (if you had the right occasion). We’ve also seen our fair share of 3D-printed glasses, purses, and shoes, and at this rate, it’s only the beginning. Duann Scott of Shapeways told Wired:

    Once we have the machines better suited to doing clothing, we can do custom fits. It’s very very possible to go into a change room, get a 3-D scan, and get a garment printed exactly to your fit. Traditionally, all garments are either a weave or a stitch. And with 3-D printing, we can … introduce something completely different. So we can grow designs rather than just using something that’s centuries-old technology. It’s a whole way to move forward in fashion and clothing and textiles.

So, sure Dita Von Teese is the kinda gal designers are going to make custom pieces for, and you’re almost definitely never going to buy this exact dress. But this is the kind of thing you could be printing up for yourself in the not too distant future.

Lucasfilm Kills 3D Star Wars Re-Releases After Realizing It’s Horrible and Everyone Hates It

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What’s worse than the Star Wars prequels? The Star Wars prequels ramrodded in your face with an extra dimension. Lucasfilm was planning on subjecting idiots with loose wallets to re-released 3D Young Anakin, but Disney says no more bullshit.

Deadline reports that Lucasfilm will pass on distributing the other five Star Wars flicks after The Phantom Menace completely bombed in 3D, to the surprise of no one except perhaps George Lucas and the Nazi scientist who invented 3D movies. Instead, Disney wants complete focus on the J.J. Abrams reboot—an absolutely smart move, even if those new sequels will themselves probably be filmed in 3D. If there’s going to be 3D crap, let there be the smallest about of 3D crap possible.

But when was the last time we heard of Lucasfilm doing something non-grotesque? When was the last time anyone even associated with Star Wars owned up to failure? I can’t remember. Maybe Disney will take the time to realize how much of a dumb-assed fad 3D cinema is by 2015—or maybe by then it’ll be too obvious to ignore. I don’t want to watch the most important three moments of my adult life with glasses on.

Computer Game Designed To Treat Depression As Effective As Traditional Treatment

Researchers at the University of Auckland tested an interactive 3D fantasy game called Sparx on a 94 youngsters diagnosed with depression whose average age was 15 and a half. Sparx invites a user to take on a series of seven challenges over four to seven weeks in which an avatar has to learn to deal with anger and hurt feelings and swap negative thoughts for helpful ones. Used for three months, Sparx was at least as effective as face-to-face conventional counselling, according to several depression rating scales. In addition, 44% of the Sparx group who carried out at least four of the seven challenges recovered completely. In the conventional treatment group, only 26% recovered fully.’ One has to wonder if it’s Sparx specifically — or gaming in general — that provides the most benefit, given that most of the symptoms of depression relate to a feeling of being unable to influence one’s environment (powerlessness, helplessness, ennui, etc) and games are specifically designed to make one feel powerful but challenged (if they hit the sweet spot)