See3D; Brings sight to the visually impaired with 3D printing

3D printing has in many ways helped people and the development in various areas. From the implementation in different education systems to how it has helped in developing the medical sector. One organisation that has found a way to help people directly through 3D printing is See3D. Based on the fact that blind people don’t get the opportunity to see things in the traditional way. This organisation uses the 3D technology to help the blind see various things by 3D printing them. Working on a voluntary and donate based platform. Its sole purpose; Bring people across all backgrounds closer together. Along with helping blind get a better understanding of what many of us take for granted. We got to talk with the young founder, Caroline Karbowski, to learn more about the initiative.

3DN: Can you please introduce yourself and explain how the idea of See3D came to be?

Caroline holds a snowflake (corner_case), and a butterfly (mathgrrl). On the table are models of a house (Nick S./See3D), pyramid (bbennington), Abraham Lincoln bust (TheNewHobbyist), Washington Monument (adams00), castle (gluetolf), chloroplast (xILx), DNA (mtdna), and dog (MustangDave).

My name is Caroline Karbowski, and I am from Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. I am currently a first-year student at The Ohio State University. When I was in 6th grade, I decided to teach myself braille, so I could read books in the car without getting dizzy. While I was learning braille, I came across an article about how 3D printing could be used to make telescope and microscope images tactile, so people who are blind could make their own observations. I decided I could help by 3D printing models and adding braille labels.

However, I didn’t know anyone who was blind who wanted a model, and I didn’t have access to a 3D printer. In high school, we had 3D printers. I realized that many people wanted to print objects because the printers were so fascinating, but they were not sure what to print. We also had a lot of leftover filament from student projects. I thought, “What if we printed models for people who are blind?” and decided to make that the basis for a project to present at TechOlympics, a student-run technology conference in Cincinnati for high school students ( https://techolympics.org/ ).