Polargraph

July 7, 2011 9:35 AM

A polargraph is a drawing machine that uses a dual-polar coordinates system. It was created by programmer, designer, and maker Sandy Noble. See the webcame here. More pictures on Computerlove.
posted by shakespeherian (1 comment total)

Very cool. I love how this thing lets you draw on an arbitrarily large canvas, with almost no hardware. Add a spray paint can and you've got a pretty nifty mural (graffiti?) machine.

The algorithm he's using to vectorize the raster images is pretty simple, and makes for a nice rainbow effect, but I'm sure with a bit more thought you could get this thing to draw clearer images.
posted by Popular Ethics at 10:08 AM on July 7, 2011