12/2/2002: Tattooing robot

Can't possibly be true, is the first thing I think when seeing this, but apparently it's true.



The whole Ananova story is here. The gist: 25-year-old inventor Niki Passath, an Austrian guy, came up with this idea and used himself as a guinea pig. I think we can take that the above images are a test and that the person is faking alarm, eh?

It makes sense, kinda, but at the same time you have to wonder why he hasn't chosen a COLOR Palm to work with.

Frankly if I was going under the, uh, thingie, I would want a much better outcome than we see here. Look at the "R" on the screen and compare it to the "R" on the arm. That's not good enough! Hell, in some places it's not even close!

The article comments that the "R" shown on the inventor's arm is from an earlier software version, so maybe now it is a little more accurate.

My favorite quote in this article:

"It was a hard job because the only person I could test it on was myself which was painful but a good incentive to get it right as soon as possible."

I suspect the program is simplistic enough that it fails to allow for mapping the tat onto a non-flat surface...which would account for how funky the results are. Not that the tat displayed on the Palm looks like a real "work of art".

Testing with a felt-tip pen might be a good start. :-)

I just can't not think about the Harrow from Kafka's <i>In The Penal Colony</i> reading about this machine, though.

As soon as I saw this posted on slashdot, I knew it was IotD worthy. I bet it is for real. The idea reminds me of the movie, Starship Troopers, in which all the friends get tats of the squad logo that are done by a robot arm.

Seems like it could be useful for livestock or lab animals, but it seems to take some of the artistry out of the art in tattoos. I suppose it would also be useful if your gang all wanted the same tattoo like the secret societies you see in movies.

...and only in movies.

Nuh uh. I'm in a Secret Society. I call it "The Ya-Ya Sisterhood".

It's progress, but still no bj machine.

Put this thing upright, add a tech. in a lead apron and with a few minor adjustments it could be a mammogram machine.

No way, I'm looking to cure cancer. Because if you cure cancer I bet you could score with a lot of chicks.

and they'd all still be bald.

At least the R is on the person RIGHT arm :-)