McDonald & Zefrank: ScribblerBot

Zefrank’s Scribbler has been around for a while as an online toy. It is a Flash project that lets the user draw a simple line drawing, and then creates its own scribbly version by applying a randomized drawing algorithm. It was an interesting experiment in mapping gestural input. More importantly, it was fun to play with. But now it has begot some more exciting byproducts.

The ScribblerBot (a collaboration between Douglas McDonald and Zefrank) uses the same algorithm to create actual drawings using a plotter. With a webcam as an input, it happily scribbles out images that are whimsical, yet eery. The portraits of people done with the ScribblerBot come out looking dark, a side effect of the algorithm’s problems with dealing with shadow.

The second incarnation is a Live Video Scribbler, shown at the NeoCon design fair in Chicago this year. Both these projects far transcend the original online toy. While the basic idea is simple, the results are compelling.