Touching gift made for mother

A partially sighted mother now has a "touching record" of her baby thanks to Exeter Advanced Technologies at Exeter University's school of engineering and computer science.

The firm helped build a three-dimensional model of seven-month-old Christopher for former student Yuen Har Tse, using an advanced reverse engineering process.

Ms Har Tse said she had the idea of creating a touchable snapshot of her firstborn when Christopher was four months old. "He was so nice to hold and touch and I thought it would be nice to remember this," she said.

Ms Har Tse, 33, a telecommunications network architect who graduated from Exeter in 1989, hit on the idea of using engineering techniques to capture a computer model of her son's face.

Exeter gave its time and expertise to create the model, that would otherwise have cost thousands of pounds to produce.

Exeter Advanced Technologies, supported by the South West Regional Development Agency, used its rapid proto-typing DTM Laser Sinter-station to create the solid model.

As he slept, Christopher's face was scanned with a reverse engineering machine by Burleigh Instruments, a partner company of Exeter Advanced Technologies. It is used in industry to turn a designer's physical models into accurate Cad templates.

The machine used low-intensity light patterns to create an accurate surface model of Christopher's face in about six seconds.

The computer model was fed into Exeter's rapid prototyping machine, which converted it into paper-thin slices. Each layer of the model was created by using a laser to melt fine plastic powder and reproduce the contours of Christopher's face.

Lee Bridger, manager of Exeter Advanced Technologies, said: "Although it is an unusual project, there are a number of interesting spin-offs, particularly as we have staff within the school who do research in the field of biomedical engineering."

Details: www.x-at.co.uk

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