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canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

Over six years, and after a lot of experimentation, Ben Holmen has worked out an awesome robotic mechanical pixel display [benholmen.com]:

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 [wikipedia.org] over the years and was inspired by an eInk movie player that played at 24 frames per hour [github.com] 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 [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 [soylentnews.org]
(2025) How a 1980s Toy Robot Arm Inspired Modern Robotics [soylentnews.org]
(2020) Waist-Mounted Robotic Arm Can Manipulate Objects, Punch Walls [soylentnews.org]
(2019) Robot Arm Models its Motion, Adapts to Damage [soylentnews.org]

Original Submission