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Giant "Inkjet Printer"
mustrum_ridcully writes "For all you who don't like the cost of inkjet printers how about this printer that uses spray paint (courtesy of bbc news ). Ok it's not exactly what you'd call compact, but perfect for the lazy or wannabe graffiti artist." Having just finished doing a bunch of painting in my house, I'd like to have one of those machines drop down over my house, and paint via program - maybe I can use as GBA SP as the control device.
Let's make a giant Tux with it!
This would have instant cool uses for designs on bedspreads or sheets, custom car paint jobs, walls, etc. etc.
;)
Personally I would use it for when I'm building furniture (desks, tables, etc.) to give it a once over with some spray wood treatment or color.
The article is kind of light on details of sales and such though. Looks more like a hack job. But hey maybe it'll be the first printer to have linux drivers FIRST!
Get paid to code OSS
A rehash of the plotter, only using spray paint instead of a pen.
The artistic benefit of this new device may not be long lived if it does become commonplace, it would be like making paintings using a plotter.
Looks more like a plotter than a printer. From the sound of the article it holds one can and traces a path with it, rather than sweeping across the "page" and marking dots at the appropriate point.
Who the hell is that?
www.bannination.com Two things float to the top he
Or, combine it with random movement printing, and you could paint the Mona Lisa in a parking lot while doing doughnuts.
The machine I think should be better described as a wall painting robot rather than a "wall printer".
A similar thing would be to fit a spray can onto this wall climbing robot.
Surprising that nobody has automated wall painting yet, then we wouldnt need to have these plain colored walls anymore. All of us could have our favorite frescos. Just get me a large res. image of the cistine chapel roof!!
.ACMD setaloiv siht gnidaeR
How long until Epson and HP start producing 20ml aerosols with chips in?
Did any one else think of the Scene in "Demolition Man" With the Graffiti robot when they first read this news item.
:)
Maybe they can shrink it down in a few years
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
...a three-year-old with a box of crayons! And he'll even color directly on the walls, no paper needed! Maintenance is a little high, but rarely needs repair. ;-)
Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!
At
http://www.hektor.ch/
you can watch a cool movie of Hector in action, aswell as some technical information.
... and paint a big-ass "IBM roolz, SCO drools" in blue on the sidewalk, street, buildings, and just about everywhere.
The biggest trick the devil pulled was letting lawyers become politicians so they can write the laws.
is posted here. Hope someone mirrors/bittorents it.
---
the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
With Ink More Expensive Than Champagne printing a wall must cost thousands.
Omnis amans amens
With apologies to those running this project, its website is at http://www.hektor.ch. (Someone say Last Rites for the web server, please.) There's some neat footage of Hektor in action. Unfortunate, though, that it's so slow; the video of it drawing some peanuts seems to go on forever, and most of the time you can't tell what it's doing. It's certainly interesting, but more performance art than anything else.
Can it print "Romani eunt domus" on a large building?
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
Super size porno!
Check out STREET WRITER. It's a modified van that will spray paint entire messages on the street. :-)
Now this is a giant ink jet printer.
Ignore the clown - the http://www.hektor.ch/ link is correct, albeit in a shambolic state at the moment...
-MT.
The article is kind of light on details of sales and such though. Looks more like a hack job.
I doubt that commercial uses were the designers' primary motives, given that the machine was the winning entry in an art contest. The clue was in the "light on details" article:
"The machine has already won an award at the 2003 Machinista media art festival."
Also, the article gives a strong indication that the designers don't seem to be commercial developers:
"Researcher Jürg Lehni came up with the idea for Hektor when thinking about novel ways for an artist to turn computer-drawn images into something more concrete.
He wanted to combine the precision of computer-generated images with the woolier outlines produced by spray paint.
Working with friend and electronic engineering student Uli Franke, Mr Lehni created Hektor. The machine suspends a spray paint using two toothed belts that feed through a pair of motors."
Again, the focus seems to be on art, not on commercial applications.
Additionally, you seem to have missed the links to the Hektor, Machinista and the Zurich Kunsthaus gallery, where another Hektor-implemented piece of art can be found.
Cunningly - some would say as cunningly as a fox, what used to be professor of cunning at OxfordUniversity, who is now head of the United Nations department of cunning planning* - these were hidden on the very same page, under the deceptive title "Related Internet Links".
Is it me, or even when they RTFA do people forget to RTFA?
(* You can't use the word cunning without quoting Blackadder.)
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I had considered that idea years ago, but never got around to actually building hardware. I'd planned on a paint tank (use that oldskool Tempra paint that washes off with water), a pressure source (like carbon dioxide), and a manifold feeding 128 electrically controlled nozzles. All this would be mounted on a frame that could be supported by a standard 2" bumper hitch (what is that, Class II? Class III?) The nozzles would be about 2" off the road, probably on some kind of floating arrangement. There'd be a small microcontroller with an RS-232 port, and a speed sensor.
You'd lay out some text or imagess in a graphics program, get out on the highway, and lay down road graffitti. "SPEED TRAP AHEAD" spread down I-85N for 200 feet.
I'm actually pretty surprised no one has built one yet. Although I'm sure the local laws have some idiotic provision against writing on highways with non-toxic temporary paint.
I can just see I-90 covered with official-looking signs proclaiming "IS YOUR WANG TOO SMALL? TRY OUR NEW MIRACLE DRUG!"
"What do you mean, you didn't know about the header page?"
Complete with pictures, a movie, etc
http://www.hektor.ch/
Pixation came out with a -real- printer that can paint on walls, buildings, etc. using compressed air and any paint that you can put through an air paint sprayer. House paint, oil paint, anything.
And it has been out for many years.
http://www.pixation.com/
Standard installation is 16 by 10 feet! It has 5 paint heads so you have black, white, cyan, magenta, and yellow. It is much cheaper than a wide format inkjet printer, and the ink costs -way- less than champagne!
OK, my birthday is coming up, who's going to pass 'round the office and get me one? ;')
And if your really looking for printer news, the first printer ever designed has finally been built.
Check out Charles Babbages printer on the same site as the other article. Hopefully THIS printer won't have to worry about the cost of refills.
But more relevant to the "instantly familiar" part is that when the New Left radicals started to idolize him, this one image of his face began to appear over and over on posters, t-shirts, magazine covers, everywhere, all variations of this one picture of him. It became a ubiquitous bit of pop-art for several years, and for probably 10 years or so, just about anybody in the U.S. could have seen a rendition of that one image, and known it was Che.
And it showed up in about a million different variations -- and apparently some of them are still around.