Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Pret-a-printer

Miniature Printer with no mechanical parts (but human host)
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A bracelet worn on the upper arm, connected via bluetooth to a portable computer+camera (cameraphone?), and nerve-stimulating capability: The user can now deliver printouts by using a pen, and two sheets of paper: on one sheet, the bracelet calibrates itself by stimulating the arm and recording the output via camera - then the user sets up the work-sheet, and relaxes...

Can be used with a variety of painting devices: Chalk and blackboard, wall and spray, glittery pen and wedding book...

loonquawl, Oct 05 2009

related prior-art Pen_20Theft_20Deterrent
[FlyingToaster, Oct 05 2009]

[link]






       I love this, but I wonder how much of the body you'd have to control. I don't think the hand and wrist would be enough.
pertinax, Oct 05 2009
  

       Will it utilize the host's muscle-memory for how to shape characters, or just do a complete override? (I'm just imagining this set up to print bi-directionally - it's going to be pretty cool watching it print that second line)
lurch, Oct 05 2009
  

       Will there be a left handed version?
egbert, Oct 05 2009
  

       [Flying Toaster]: I did not know your idea, but it is indeed quite related; I just moved it up the arm, thereby giving free reign over an area, instead of relying on voluntary arm movements, and made it independent of the instrument, by adding a calibration.   

       [lurch]: it would not access any higher levels of control, thereby freeing the subject from his/her bad handwriting (at the cost of a little more zapping) - i imagine it working like a vector plotter, using the shortest vector-and-transit route through the picture.   

       [egbert]: the versions are manifold: whatever appendage the user wraps the bracelet around is used for printing - if it is wrapped around the trunk, and the pen is in the user's nose, it just depends on whether or not the user's muscular structure is fine-tuned enough in that area to get reproducable calibration.
loonquawl, Oct 06 2009
  

       oh, I'm not calling mfd on it: yours is the more basic principle in that regard.
FlyingToaster, Oct 07 2009
  

       [lurch] I'm pretty sure that "muscle memory" is a misleading popular phrase for skills stored in the brain in a non-conscious way; here nerves in the arm are being stimulated directly.   

       //whatever appendage// Snow writing?
spidermother, Oct 09 2009
  
      
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