Another day at MD&M West has come and gone, and I’m continuing to see a lot of focus on miniaturization — which makes sense, considering the multitude of medical applications that could benefit from compact yet efficient devices.

The SQUIGGLE motor from New Scale Technologies measures 2.8 x 2.8 x 6 mm. Product manager Ralph Weber explained that whereas piezo materials usually require a larger voltage charge, this particular motor can be driven from battery power as low as 2.3 VDC. The motor basically consists of a nut and a screw. Piezoelectric actuators then vibrate the nut at a fixed resonant frequency; the nut vibrates in a hula-hoop-like fashion (that’s where the “squiggle” comes in), causing the screw to rotate. The motor can be combined with a tiny linear position sensor to form a complete closed-loop system.

The motor has the potential to enable the design of smaller products in a number of fields. For instance, it is currently being used in endoscopes, but Weber said that they are also developing a number of other medical applications that will be released in the next few years — but in the meantime, mum’s the word. He did hint, however, that we’re likely to see this motor improve the picture quality in camera phones that currently lack the precise autofocus capability of larger digital cameras. Sounds like exciting things are on the horizon — though we may have to squint to see them.

Day one at the Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) West show in Anaheim, CA was bustling with energy. Nearly everyone I spoke with said that they had found themselves happily busy throughout the day.

One nice part about meeting people at trade shows is that you might come across information you would never have gleaned from a simple press release (or information that never made it into the press release in the first place). For instance, although I was aware that NASA and GM had developed the highly advanced “Robonaut 2″ robot for space and automotive applications, I had no idea that Quickparts was involved in the process as well — until I spoke with their representatives at today’s show. Roughly speaking, Quickparts supplied custom parts for the Robonaut 2′s head and body, while GM was involved mainly with the development of the robot’s dexterous arms.

In other news, one innovation that caught my eye was the Noble UltraLight from Norman Noble. The brochure features a man in swimming gear making a snow angel, underneath the words, “Our New Laser Technology is Cool.” This athermal laser machining process was developed for applications that require intricate cutting without thermal damage to the material – such as the manufacturing of stents or a number of other medical devices. Hopefully I’ll find something just as “cool” tomorrow.

Day two at SolidWorks World, the worldwide event for SolidWorks users, drew a record crowd. And this time it wasn’t because of the sunny Southern California weather. It was because the special guest speaker happened to be James Cameron, who just this morning was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture Academy Awards for “Avatar.”

You may be thinking, “What could a movie director have to say that would be valuable to design engineers?” Cameron answered that question immediately. A former machinist, NASA Advisory Council member, and technology expert, Cameron knows a lot about designing products, including helping NASA design a camera system for an upcoming Mars exploration mission. He has also engineered a number of deep-ocean expeditions that involved state-of-the-art camera technologies.

With these projects, Cameron said he has tried to evolve himself outside the “platform of Hollywood and that closed-loop and self-referential reality bubble of Hollywood, and immerse myself in the NASA culture, the institutional scientific culture, and the oceanographic community.”

Among Cameron’s pieces of advice to design engineers was to be environmentally conscious. “The overall trend of the design business is to make whatever device you’re making operate more efficiently,” he said. “Inefficiency has held us in generating a continuously sustainable civilization. People need to be inspired to go into the alternative energy sector and other areas where we can make a difference by making products or vehicles that are going to make our civilization better. “

This week, I’m coming to you live from Anaheim, CA, and SolidWorks World 2010. The SolidWorks user community continues to flock to this annual event, and this year, there are more than 5,000 registrants learning about new features coming up in the next version of SolidWorks, as well as networking with other users, SolidWorks executives, and members of the press (the most important group!).

But let’s talk about what I saw here on opening day. I have to tell you that today I saw a technology that has the potential to completely transform the way designers design. The company is called InfiniteZ (based in Campbell, CA) and the technology is called the zSpace™ platform. Essentially, it’s a virtual-holographic system in which lifelike stereoscopic images appear in open space in front of you, and you can directly interact with them using a special stylus. It uses an LCD display that’s a workbench environment that lets you navigate, grab, slice, carve, zoom, and explore models.

I saw a few different demos of this platform, and the ability to move and create models in open space right in front of you is amazing. InfiniteZ CEO Paul Kellenberger told me that the platform will be available soon (“in months, not years,” he said). In the meantime, check out the company’s Web site and stay tuned. This is one technology that any CAD user is going to want to keep track of.