Planets scaled to sit on your desk, hold in your hand or collect in jar, these micro-wonders let you collect constellations, moons, even entire solar systems.

Made by the Little Planet Factory in London, these 3D-printed models come with various degrees of detail, from real (raised ridges for Earthen land forms) to speculative (terraformed versions of Mars).

Collectors can choose entire sets and series that work in tandem, illustrating just how big Jupiter is and how small our own Terra can be, or pick individual bodies, like a larger-sized version of the moon.

Their creations get particularly inventive when they enter Russian doll territory, allowing you to select versions inside other versions, like Venus with and without its surrounding gas clouds (open the shell to get the latter).

The post Micro-Planets: 3D-Printed Cosmos Collections for Desktops first appeared on Gajitz.

Translating analog constructions into virtual realities, a combination of hardware and software tracks what you build in realtime and effectively backs up both process and product in digital format. The system uses a combination of accelerometers built into the blocks themselves and wireless radios that transmit their motion to your device.

The idea has a variety of potential applications, from industrial and architectural design to converting objects from one material or size to 3D-printable formats at other scales. The results can be rendered as you build in full color, wireframe or other display modes to give you different perspectives on what you are creating.

There are also myriad educational possibilities, allowing children to alternate interactions with digital and physical objects without any kind of complex rendering program.

Its makers at Gravity are the same group responsible for a remarkable augmented reality sketchbook that allows you to effectively draw in three dimensions – this is in some ways an extension of the same digital/physical hybridization.

The post Lego X: Physical Blocks Auto-Generate Digital Schematics first appeared on Gajitz.