A close up of a bumper. They are made out of green PLA thermoplastic.

Bumpers attatched to an iPad mini. Cheapo digital calipers for scale!

THE PROBLEM

My mother is a first grade teacher. That’s not the problem but it does give me a lot to work with. The problem is that she uses these iPad Minis to let her students play with OSMO, an educational game system that teaches everything from shapes to coding. They had these thick rubbery ballistics cases on them that prevented the little mirror that lets the game work attach to the iPad. It reflects the camera’s view forwards and down so that it looks at what the students have placed in front of the machine- a very cool application of machine vision. The cases have to be removed to play the game- leaving the iPads vulnerable to damage.

THE SOLUTION

3D Printed Bumpers! Take a bit of soft, nontoxic PLA thermoplastic (it’s probably in your water bottle or Tupperware), choose a kid-friendly color, and in no time you have these cute bumpers that will protect the iPad from short falls and hits to the corners that could shatter the screen. They print in about 15 minutes each in high-quality on my Robo3D printer. Notice how there is plenty of room for the OSMO mirror- perfect for playtime. They are a form fit and slide right on and off.

SHARING THE SOLUTION

You can get your 3D model here on Thingiverse. You can even use 3D Hubs to find a local place to get it printed if you don’t have access to a 3D printer!

For more technical folk who want to customize these bumpers, you can get the CAD file on OnShape! OnShape will let you download the file for various CAD packages if you do not want to use its web-based editor.