Disney Research released this video and paper about 3d printing soft felt structures with active components such as electronics. They basically show how to 3d print a high tech felt teddy bear or other soft toys. Mehtod could be described as additive 3d knitting.
The machine they are doing it on looks like DIY printer type machine, however I don't think they will open source it.
It is possible this will be commercialized ...
Project homepage:
http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/printed-teddy-bears/
Here is the more detailed PDF paper on this technology:
http://www.disneyresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/Project_TeddyBears_Siggraph14_paper.pdf
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| Machine head that 3d prints felt yarn into shapes |
Here are some more Disney 3d printing related projects:
http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/08/aireal-3d-printed-haptic-feedback-with.html
http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/07/disney-researches-3d-printed-mechanical.html
