You know that slightly niggly, slightly crazy feeling you get when you feel something or someone is watching you? I have that feeling that today as I sit writing about a tech subject that's very topical and very exciting. The eyes have it, full of soulfulness and a sense of spiky intellect. The hair is ruby-red with snowy white bands and the ears are bobbed... the likeness is fairly uncanny as I look at Sophie, a beautifully rendered 3D sculpture of my almost decade-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Her sandstone replica sits serenely, almost regally, on the corner bookshelf while the real dog lies on a cosy rug snoring soundly, oblivious to the clear advances in tech over the past few years that have made the exactness of her "clone" possible.

If you want to see the future of 3-D printing, ask Stefanie Mueller for a demo. A computer scientist at MIT, Mueller's work has involved projects like developing a laser-cutting system to make delicate, 3-D printed origami. Now, Mueller and a team at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab are introducing a new kind of 3-D printable ink that makes it possible to recolor 3-D objects after they've been printed. The method, called ColorFab, combines a 3-D printing interface and a special type of 3-D printable ink that changes colors when activated by light. Together, the system makes it possible to dynamically change and customize an object's appearance many times.

'Optical trap display' projects graphics into the air, where they are visible from all angles We still don't have flying cars, brain-computer interfaces, or an artificial intelligence (AI) you can hold a conversation with, but one classic science-fiction technology is on our doorstep: true 3D displays which are capable of projecting an image into "thin air". A new paper in the journal Nature reports a breakthrough from a group of researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah: the first creation of a "free-space volumetric display", capable of reproducing full-colour graphics floating in the air, visible from all angles. The technology, dubbed the "optical trap display", works using a technique that sounds like it was ripped from the cinema screen. "You capture a particle in an invisible, or almost invisible'tractor beam'," explains the lead researcher, Daniel Smalley, "then you drag that around to every point of an image. When it's in the right place, you shoot it with red, green and blue lasers to make it illuminate, and build up an image point by point, dragging this cellulose particle around as you go."

John Zysman (Zysman.john@gmail.com) is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, cofounder of the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, and convener of the Berkeley Project Work in an Era of Intelligent Tools and Systems. Martin Kenney (mfkenney@ucdavis.edu) is Distinguished Professor of Human and Community Development at the University of California, Davis, and Senior Project Director at the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy; he is also an Affiliated Faculty at Instituto di Management at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy.

Some of the biggest players in the industry have already started to embrace disruptive and cutting-edge technologies, but this year we will see smaller and medium sized manufacturers incorporating the same technologies into their processes with equally as effective results. The entire industry is on the brink of an upheaval parallel to the industrial revolutions it has experienced throughout history – those that centered around technologies like steam-powered machinery and the linear assembly machine. The pending industrial revolution will be underpinned by a range of technologies that have already begun to pervade their way across the sector, such as 3D printing and artificial intelligence, and will continue to do so in 2018. See also: Combatting the manufacturing industry's skills gap Perhaps the most important technological shift we will see across the manufacturing industry in 2018 is the increasing adoption of genuine artificial intelligence by manufacturers of varied size across the sector. There is a distinction to be made between the ostensible ai (colloquially known as'lowercase' ai) that we have seen dominating the press throughout 2017, and the genuine AI (known as'uppercase' AI) that will be rolled out across the sector this year.

Keidanren has tapped Hitachi Ltd. Chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi as its next chief, the nation's top business lobby said Tuesday. The appointment was approved earlier in the day at a meeting of the body's board of councilors. Nakanishi, 71, will be formally appointed at Keidanren's general meeting on May 31, the lobby said, replacing 74-year-old Sadayuki Sakakibara, senior adviser at Toray Industries Inc. The move marks the first time an executive from Hitachi, a major industrial machinery manufacturer, will assume Keidanren's top post. Sakakibara had said he would pick his successor from current or former vice chairs, who are from strongly performing manufacturers.

Jefferson Graham previews the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where new smart home products using technology from Google, Amazon and Apple will be unveiled. LAS VEGAS -- The trade show of the Consumer Electronics Show will open Tuesday, but we've got a sneak peek on some of the coolest technology set to debut at the world's biggest consumer trade show. Each year, the Consumer Technology Association, which stages the CES, selects 20 products for the CES Innovation Awards, "honoring outstanding design and engineering," in consumer tech products. And we've got the list. The categories are varied, everything from 3D printing, computer accessories, home appliances, home speakers, robots and cameras.

IDC recently released a report, "IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Manufacturing Predictions 2018," surveying the global manufacturing landscape. When creating its predictions the firm examined ecosystems and experiences, greater intelligence in operational assets and processes, data capitalization, the convergence of information technology (IT) and operations. Most of the group's predictions refer to a continuum of change and digital transformation (DX) within the wider ecosystem of the manufacturing industry and global economy. "Manufacturers of every size and shape are changing rapidly because of new digital technologies, new competitors, new ecosystems, and new ways of doing business," said Kimberly Knickle, research vice president, IT Priorities and Strategies, IDC Manufacturing Insights. "Manufacturers that can speed their adoption of digital capabilities in order to create business value will be the leaders of their industry."

John Deere Dubuque Works (Dubuque, Iowa), a manufacturer of agriculture and industrial equipment, has implemented a virtual-reality system to use in its construction division. The system enables John Deere to use virtual-product prototypes to assess key design factors in construction equipment, such as visibility and the ability to reach controls. Nabisco Biscuit (East Hanover, N.J.), a manufacturer of cookies and crackers, has installed an intelligent process-operating guidelines (POG) system. This POG system uses expert system technology to provide realtime process control information to the bakeries. Automotive manufacturer Ford Powertrain Operations (Dearborn, Mich.) has developed a flexible manufacturing system that is being controlled by an intelligent cell controller.

However, it is very expensive or nearly impossible to 3D Print large structures with today's technology due to the small size and slow speed of 3D Printers that are available on the market. A london based company named "Ai Build" is developing 3Dp technology for 3D Printing large scale objects cost efficiently at a very high speed. Video Courtesy: Ai Build Music Courtesy: Groovy Baby by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Artist: http://audionautix.com/