Moebius Ants

 
Designed by: andre.bois   contact | Shop: ABC
1.5 w x 7.3 d x 8.5 h in cm |

Inspired by the great artwork of M. C. Escher... with a twist !

This Moebius strip and its ants has been carefully designed to be 'playable'.

It is possible to explore the moebius strip in a tactile way, by sliding around the ants, to get different configuration (both ants on the outside, both inside, one inside and one outside).

I think this demonstrates well the possibilities of 3D printing, and hope these 'Moebius Ants' will make it to Siggraph :-)

 Permalink
 Report abuse
 4
 
Comments  4

Log in if you would like to leave a comment
Ah.. As I have not yet had a model printed I'm not sure on the strength of the material so I've been going by what I have heard from others. Looking from above in the 3d viewer it looks smooth although from the side the circle isn't circular, I was just thinking that it could pose a problem at the points the circle was not as round. It would be brilliant to see it printed and working though and I'm guessing it would work.
Thu Aug 7 22:04:35 2008 by AquaticPenguin
The loop is smooth, really. The ants are not, by design.
Both sample screenshots were rendered in flat shading, and still the loop is smooth.
Did you have a look at it with "View in 3D" ?

About weakness, it is true I would not drop it on the ground. But the samples I had printed in Cream Robust are pretty strong, and all the measurements have been done to have something solid enough.
Wed Aug 6 13:33:22 2008 by andre.bois
The loop of the mobius strip doesn't look very smooth and it is also quite thin which would make it very weak
Wed Aug 6 12:06:20 2008 by AquaticPenguin
Smaller / cheaper version available here : http://www.shapeways.com/model/2146/moebius_ants___small.html
Wed Aug 6 01:13:57 2008 by andre.bois
  $
This model is not for sale.
 
'; sfHover = function() { var sfEls = document.getElementById("nav").getElementsByTagName("LI"); for (var i=0; i