Fun analog PlotBot hack

Mark Frauenfelder 11:19 am Tue May 13, 2008

Our friends at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories created a fun e-paper device with a 1970s analog chart recorder and a Fisher-Price Doodle Pro.

What do you get when you mix a 1970's style analog chart recorder, an 8-bit microcontroller, and a Fisher-Price Doodle Pro? A truly 21st century toy: An analog PlotBot with e-paper display technology!

…

So is it really e-paper? It turns out that it is. Strictly speaking, this is a magnetic display, not an electronic display. However, magnetic fields can be generated with electronics, so that point is negotiable. Much more importantly, it has all the hallmarks of electronic paper: it is a high-contrast, daylight-readable display that reflects ambient light much like regular paper. It is flexible, erasable, and it requires no electricity to maintain an image on the screen. And as it turns out, variations on this technology are actively being explored for use as electronic paper, as evidenced by a growing number of patents on the subject.

This particular one happens to be a big and flexible e-paper display– not bad for fifteen bucks! Link

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