The Bricasso LEGO Mosaic Printer, brainchild of design group JK Brickworks, prints from a scan of the source image using 1×1 plates in the place of pixels.
PSFK reported on the device, which is powered by an EV3 colour sensor, and works by saving the initial scan onto a Mindstorms unit that then creates a legend on the bottom row outside the image, in turn instructing the programme on which colour bricks to select for each tile of the print.
It commissions a total of 450 1×1 bricks, in up to nine different colours, through a gravity feed system, ensuring the print is exclusively made of LEGOs, apart from the sensor and motors.
The plastic bricks can take over half an hour to place depending on the scale of the print, but it “serves to highlight the powers of unadulterated creativity and machines alike”. Creator Jason Allerman said: “I had originally hoped to be able to scan any type of image and have the program pixelate it based on the colours of the plates in the supply.
Unfortunately the EV3 colour sensor is nowhere near precise enough to be able to do this. I resigned myself to require pre-pixelated images to be scanned. “Through it all I am continually struck with how amazing the LEGO system is as a medium for building, well, pretty much anything you can imagine. It allows people of all ages to enjoy the challenge of bringing their ideas to life, exercising their visualization and problem solving skills along the way.”
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4neo4fRw2M[/youtube]
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