The writer and poet Jean-Baptiste CABAUD and the 3d.FAB platform with Christophe Marquette and Lucas Lemarié merged their know-how to generate… 3D printed literature!

Spoken text cannot be 3D printed as they are. The recorded sound, nor its direct visual representation, cannot be directly 3D printed too. The sound is indeed composed of a layering of frequencies, invisible on the initial recording. However, each of its frequencies has an amplitude specific to each particular sound that makes up the final recording. The amplitude must therefore be found to make the sound 3D printable!

But how? 🤔

☝ First, the initial audio signal (blue) is filtered to obtain a new smoothed signal (red).
🤘 Second, the sound is broken down every second into harmonic component frequencies of the initial sound. Here, Fourier transformation comes to the rescue! This mathematical function makes it possible to represent frequencies signals which are not periodic, such as the human voice and therefore, our starting audio signal.
💅 Thirdly, we now have a 3D object that can be 3D printed! This is how literature can be 3D printed 📚

Photo credit: Vanessa Cusimano