As a parent I was fortunate enough to see my child using 4D scanning techniques at the Verulam Clinic in St Albans. During the procedure I considered what it was like for visually impaired expectant mothers who cannot experience this 3D data displayed on a 2D monitor. I realised it could be possible to use 3D printers to print the data in a medium that a visually impaired person could see through touch. After my initial research I found several companies around the world offering this service however the price made it inaccessible for visually impaired people who receive some or all of their financial support from charity.
https://techcrunch.com/2012/08/09/japanese-3d-printing-company-creates-models-of-your-live-fetus/
After my initial research using my own childs 3D data I was able to develop a pipeline to extract the information in a format that I could use with VFX industry software. As a VFX artist I have over a decade of experience working with 3D data and was able to remove all the echo data and patch holes in the foetus data to make a clean 3D model which could be printed.
I approached Hertfordshire Society for the Blind to see whether this would be of interest to any expectant parents they support through their charity and was able to organise a scan and create a successful print for an expectant mother for £100.
Moving forward with this technology I will consider future applications for other medical data. I have kept channels open with Hertfordshire Society for the Blind for any future expectant parents who may be interested in this technology.