The optical performance of a 3D printed, titanium dioxide painted, Ganzfeld bowl
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The emergence of three dimensional (3D) printing has inspired creative ways to enable clinicians to make their own medical devices at low cost, a process called distributed manufacture. Devices for light stimulation, such as for visual electrophysiology or pupillometry, require both physical and optical properties. Here we tested whether a 3D printed (fused deposition modelling, FDM) poly-lactic acid (PLA) surface can exhibit Lambertian reflectance, and tested the behaviour of a 3D printed Ganzfeld bowl as an integrating sphere. White PLA transmits light, so a painted inside surface was necessary. We tested whether the spectral and Lambertian reflecting properties of low cost titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) based paint was equivalent to specialist barium sulphate (BaSO 4 ) coating. Our measurements indicated that our prototype Ganzfeld with TiO 2 coating reflected all wavelengths equally and had radiance uniformity of 90% which compared well to other published designs. In many jurisdictions regulation prevents a do-it-yourself approach to medical devices, but these approaches might facilitate interested clinicians to create devices for ethically approved research and assist those with severe resource limitations.
Source: Medical Engineering & Physics
Authors: Jesse Gale, Samuel Sartie, Patrick Dougherty, Callum Allen, Mark Bagley, Mirjam Münch, Simon Fraser
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4410878418