Growth Modeling Device

source: dwbowen

This system uses lasers to scan an onion plant from one of three angles. As the plant is scanned a fuse deposition modeler in real-time creates a plastic model based on the information collected. The device repeats this process every twenty-four hours scanning from a different angle. After a new model is produced the system advances a conveyor approximately 17 inches so the cycle can repeat. The result is a series of plastic models illustrating the growth of the plant from three different angles.
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source: deezen

Designer David Bowen has created a machine that scans an onion and makes a model of it every 24 hours.

Called Growth Modeling Device, the project is on show at Z33 in Hasselt, Belgium, as part of an exhibition called Design by Performance.

The design uses lasers to scan the onion from one of three angles every 24 hours, then prints a model from liquid plastic using the data.

The models are displayed on a conveyor belt, documenting the growth process.

Also on show at Design by Performance: Debug by Edhv, where posters are printed according to the movement of insects.

Here’s some more information from Bowen:

This system uses lasers to scan an onion plant from one of three angles. As the plant is scanned a fuse deposition modeler in real-time creates a plastic model based on the information collected. The device repeats this process every twenty-four hours scanning from a different angle. After a new model is produced the system advances a conveyor approximately 17 inches so the cycle can repeat. The result is a series of plastic models illustrating the growth of the plant from three different angles.
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source: openmaterialsorg
growth modeling device is an artwork by David Bowen which involves a system using lasers to scan an onion plant from one of three angles, which then creates a plastic model based on the information collected.

The device builds a series of simulations of a growing onion plant by means of three-D scanning and printing, outputting one image every twenty-four hours from one of three angles. A fused deposition modeler that uses ABS plastic as its material is running simultaneously with a laser scanner that scans the onion. The output of this process appears rather mechanical and barren, displayed as it is at regular intervals on a conveyor belt that loops away from the scanning/printing mechanism, around a roller and back.