Is there any technical significance in the "fade out" sequence that happens between the "F21" image and the next Instagram photo? It looks like once it gets to full black, a few pixels are "stuck" (or slipped I guess), and then something seems to detect that and correct the pixels, so I'm wondering if it's a kind of routine to zero out the pixels, or just an effect. The pattern seems to be roughly the same on each run, suggesting that if it is a self-correction algorithm, it's not persisting the offset/correction (or if the same pixels keep slipping each time, perhaps the algorithm could account for that by rolling those at a different speed).
Either way, this is really cool! I'd love to work on something like this as a job :)
> Each ribbon also features a reflective strip which is scanned by an infrared sensor, which tells the machine the color each spool is currently showing, allowing for corrections for any slip that may occur.
That's badass. I wondered about whether the machine would need constant calibration due to the belts slipping or hopping a gear, etc. I really dig solutions to problems like this.. I'm not sure how I'd categorize them, I suppose solutions that involve observing reality as directly as possible instead of relying on too many layers of abstraction.
EDIT: I guess now I'm curious... probably this is fast enough that you can literally scroll until you see the right color. I wonder if that's what's happening or if there's still an attempt to remember where on the belt it's located and make an attempt to take the fastest path there. It'd only be faster half the time though. I wonder if the overall experience would differ much.
This is what I was wondering. My theory was that they were using a camera looking at the front of the display to identify the color being shown by each spool. I think my solution is better :)
Either way, this is really cool! I'd love to work on something like this as a job :)