Talk with the creator, Gael Langevin, InMoov, Maker Faire Eindhoven 2015 (English)

In this talk

1. 0:21

   From client work to a 3D-printed robot

   Langevin designs objects for major perfume brands and says that solving clients’ problems under tight deadlines is part of his work. InMoov is a hobby project made from parts he models or sculpts digitally, prints, and assembles.

2. 2:02

   A prosthetic hand sparked InMoov

   After buying a 3D printer in 2011, Langevin designed a futuristic prosthetic hand for a French car company, though the job never proceeded. He published the files on Thingiverse, where others began using them for prosthetics. Working with Nicolas on a usable hand led Langevin to keep developing the wider robot and its community.

3. 3:45

   Making turns ideas into working mechanisms

   Langevin traces his interest in making to childhood sculpting and taking apart broken objects to understand or repair them. He describes imagining how a motor, gears, and a sculpted part might fit together, then modeling and building the idea. Seeing a mechanism work in real life is especially satisfying.

4. 7:42

   Open sharing expands the maker community

   Langevin sees making as a longstanding human impulse, made more visible by the internet. Online communication lets people share projects and find components, such as a 12-volt DC motor, that might once have been hard to source locally. He says this exchange helps makers develop things together.

5. 10:26

   Open source needs a sustainable business model

   Langevin expects open sharing and existing money systems to coexist, pointing to Arduino as an example of an open-source project that earns revenue. InMoov has not yet found a workable way to fund itself while keeping its files available. He also says patents may become harder to rely on as ideas spread quickly.