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Old style tweet printing machine

Priya KuberMarch 21st, 2012

The Twittertape Machine prototype from Adam Vaughan connects to his Twitter account via Ethernet, checks for updates twice every minute, and prints out a hard copy of any new Tweets without the need for printer ink.

Vaughan told us that the idea for the Twittertape Machine was born of a desire to have the kind of old stock ticker seen in movies sitting on his desk. After a lukewarm reception to his pitch from friends, he decided to make his dream a reality. Rather than sacrifice a rare original (like the Edison Universal Stock Ticker used for Ames Bielenberg’s Spring Break project), he opted to build his own replica version from some old brass clock movements, a wooden plinth and a glass dome found online.

It is powered by two AC adapters and is controlled by a network-enabled Arduino-style microcontroller running custom code in the base. The board checks Vaughan’s Twitter account every 30 seconds for new Tweets.

The little thermal printer hidden at the base prints the tweets on a cut-down thermal paper. An awesome product in an awesome demand!

[Via: Twittertape and Gizmag]

3 Responses to “Old style tweet printing machine”

  1. Dominic Finn Says:

    Amazing! Saw a video of it working on youtube. I love the idea of it printing little messages you can rip off and then read whilst walking to work!

  2. Fish Says:

    The most important question: which printer is used. I did not find any information about that.

  3. Priya Kuber Says:

    It is an old style printer which used heat. The details are in the post.

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