GhostWriter was made as a collaborative student project in the course Prototyping of Interactive Media at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
GhostWriter is connected to an Arduino Mega which registers button presses made on the typewriter's keyboard. The Arduino makes a sentence out of it. By returning the carriage the sentence is sent via USB to a computer running Processing 2. Here, a chatbot (we used Eliza for our prototype) generates an answer. The answer is returned to the Arduino which writes it out by controlling a 12V stepper motor and four 24V pneumatic solenoid valves (one dedicated to space-bar, the rest to all of the letters). This way we could cotroll all the typewriters buttons with just four air outlets. When Ghostwriter is done writing, return the carriage and write something new.
We found an old typewriter on a shelf at our Institute. As well as being the inspiration for the whole project, it proved useful for a Wizard of Oz test.
The front and back end of the Wizard of Oz-test. People seemed to like the consept, so we took it further.
Just bought our own Remington 6 typewriter. It needed som dusting and oiling before it soort of worked properly-ish again.
Our first time hooking the Remington up to Arduino-controlled pneumatics. Great success!
The mechanical solution which made it posssible to controll many buttons with fewer valves.
Makers:
Kjersti Bjelkarøy
Aurora Nicolaisen Brun
Alexander Jonassen
Sigve Astrup Lien
Ingeborg Skogsfjord
Kjersti Bjelkarøy
Aurora Nicolaisen Brun
Alexander Jonassen
Sigve Astrup Lien
Ingeborg Skogsfjord
