Awesome Wooden Pixel Display
canopic jug writes:
Over six years, and after a lot of experimentation, Ben Holmen has worked out an awesome robotic mechanical pixel display:
Six years ago I had an idea to build a large, inefficient display with a web interface that anyone could interact with. I've enjoyed Danny Rozin's unconvenional mirrors over the years and was inspired by an eInk movie player that played at 24 frames per hour that got me thinking about a laborious display that could slowly assemble an image.
I landed on the idea of a 40*25 pixel grid of pixels, turned one by one by a single mechanism. Compared to our modern displays with millions of pixels changing 60 times a second, a wooden display that changes a single pixel 10 times a minute is an incredibly inefficient way to create an image. Conveniently, 40*25 = 1,000 pixels, leading to the name Kilopixel and the six-letter domain name kilopx.com. How do you back down from that? That's the best domain name I've ever owned.
So I got to work. This project has everything: a web app, a physical controller, a custom CNC build, generated gcode, tons of fabrication, 3d modeling, 3d printing, material sourcing - so much to get lost in. It's the most ambitious project I've ever built.
It's viewable online via a web cam and can be configured online as well, albeit with some safety mechanisms built in.
Previously:
(2025) Oh No, Wavy Dave! Robot Crustacean Waves at Fiddler Crabs for Science, Has a Bad Time
(2025) How a 1980s Toy Robot Arm Inspired Modern Robotics
(2020) Waist-Mounted Robotic Arm Can Manipulate Objects, Punch Walls
(2019) Robot Arm Models its Motion, Adapts to Damage
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