Created by Bjørn Karmann in collaboration with Nicolas Armand and Lars Kaltenbach, PyroGraph is a CIID project inspired by the thermal printers used for receipts in all shops. The PyroGraph analyses an image and converts it into dots that aare then burned with a 450 °C tip on to paper. The time of contact between the iron and the paper determines the grayscale of the dot; the longer it presses against the paper, the darker the dots get.

The machine uses a paper roll (so the length of the printed piece can then be up to 100m) and a head moving on a fixed x axis, controlled by servo motors and a custom Processing app developed by the team. In addition, The PyroGraph will also listen to the ambient sound in the room, to create a connection between the space and the printer. The drawings will be distorted depending on the sound activity of the room in which it will be displayed.

Created with Processing, rlbShield and Arduino.

Project Page | Bjørn Karmann |Nicolas Armand | Lars Kaltenbach | CIID