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Hektor: the Graffiti Robot

Lopex writes "Gizmodo has a story about Hektor, a graffiti robot. Apparently it is for the extremely geeky (or perhaps extremely lazy) tagger. Hektor.ch has photos, information (pdf), and a movie (15 Mb) of it in action."

15 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by flewp · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hektor really needs to learn some can control. Look at that drip!

    He also lacks style, but at least it's not just giant bubble letters.

    --
    WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
    1. Re:Wow by dAzED1 · · Score: 4, Informative
      I know you're just being silly, but it looked to me like the can was very controlled. There were fine details that lacked any drip. The drip that did exist looked pretty intentional.

      Look over the pictures again. Any picture that shows drip will show plenty of areas with none. There are also other pictures with no drip at all.

    2. Re:Wow by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Hektor really needs to learn some can control. Look at that drip!"

      There are a lot of women out there who just don't understand how challenging that really is.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  2. OK, that's pretty damn cool... by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Simple, elegant and with the right planning and execution some pretty decent murals could be done. I think there's a real market for it, even for commercial advertising. Give something like this more colors and even graphitti artists will begin to wonder why they put up with the freezing cold, cops, etc. when they could just hook up one of these and lurk in the shadows until it's done. No more lugging around twenty cans of spraypaint.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:OK, that's pretty damn cool... by m3djack · · Score: 5, Funny

      and even graphitti artists will begin to wonder why they put up with the freezing cold, cops, etc. when they could just hook up one of these and lurk in the shadows until it's done. No more lugging around twenty cans of spraypaint.

      Right, now they just have to lug around twenty cans of spraypaint, one hundred feet of rope, a level, a ladder, something to attach the rope to the side of the building with, a laptop, data cable, and a robot.

      Then, if the cops haven't come after someone complained of the racket of ladders hitting the sides of buildings and boltguns bolting the rope onto the side of a brick building, they may do all the lurking in the shadows they wish while the robot spends a half an hour drawing a landscape.

  3. Hooray by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A variation of an XY plotter, hanging from cables, gravity pulls it in the Y direction.

    A friend and I did something practically identical years ago for a tech shop project in high school, though we werent allowed to use spraypaint, so we had it draw on walls with magic markers, like a giant hanging etch-a-sketch. Worked pretty well, and really wasnt that complicated to build (QBasic "driver" software included)

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  4. couldn't resist... by webtre · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think this story is a dupe. Didn't they send two of these to Mars?

    --
    litigious bastards
    suck it sco!
  5. Art? by s0l0m0n · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Where's the art? I'm sure that there are lots of people who would argue that graffiti is not art, but I feel that it's a valid form of subversive social commentary.

    Most of the Graffiti kids I have known tag for a bunch of reasons..

    Reasons like the art of it (I've seen some fantastic tags), but mostly the challenge of getting to a spot where you have time to throw a good tag. I mean, half of what people graffiti is their own name, or TAG, mostly on the biggest, most difficult thing to get to that they can find.

    It's about the art, and about the challenge. Using a robot seems like mere automated vandalism.

  6. Billboard Appliations? by danaan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This just makes me wonder why similar technology hasn't been used for the giant advertisements that cover the entire side of buildings. From what I've seen, these are all done by living human artists, who do a remarkable job in most cases. But it would seem very realistic, and I'd think cheaper to use some kind of robotic painter that could replicate art on anything. Have I just missed the news, or is it Clear Channel holding back the progress of technology?

  7. This has been posted on /. before by bat2k · · Score: 5, Informative
    --
    My other sig is a Porsche.
  8. Just what every city needs by Progman3K · · Score: 4, Funny

    As if those no-talent taggers aren't enough, now we can look forward to them automating the process.

    Proof-positive tagging isn't art.

    *puts on flame retardant underpants*

    --
    I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
  9. Are they mad?! by DarkHand · · Score: 5, Funny

    A direct link to a 15MB .mov file on the front page of slashdot? Does someone REALLY not like the people who run that server or something?

  10. Danger Will Robinson, Danger! Annoying Javascript by SuperBanana · · Score: 5, Funny
    photos

    Yeah, a nice bit of javascript that opens over a half dozen windows in rapid-fire order, ordered a CD from Amazon using my account, sent a flaming email to GWB, redirected me to the goat-whatever guy, played the Dean Scream, and then crashed Mozilla. Well, ok, only the bit about opening up a bunch of photos.

    [RANT]Folks- popup windoid things as part of your website are like talking appliances. Every so often, designers get it in their heads that it's a Hot Idea, and then everyone drags them out into the street and demonstrates how the current generation of designers got their new jobs. If I want to open something on your site in a new window, I'll goddamn hold down the modifier key and THEN click the link, thanks much.[/RANT]

  11. holy pop ups batman! by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Informative

    if you click on the jpg link... consider yourself warned

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  12. Mirror by ripleymj · · Score: 5, Informative

    Video available here

    PDF available here