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Writing and driving, driving and writing

By Gearhead, NetworkWorld.com, 07/08/05

Sometime ago we remember hearing an interesting idea: Mount a row of high pressure water jets on the bumper of a car and by matching the duration of pulses of water with the speed of the car "write" messages on a road as you travel. What a great idea. As someone pointed out at the time you would, in theory, be safe from the law as they could hardly arrest you for cleaning the road! (In reality they could probably arrest you for disturbing the peace or some other frippery but the idea of being arrested for cleaning is great.)

Anyway, we've been meaning to investigate this topic further and then, today, we found that some has already built a working system. The device, named the StreetWriter is the creation of the Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA). The latest version, the SWX, appears to spray chalk like its older but smaller brother, the IAA's GraffitiWriter "a tele-operated field programmable robot which employs a custom built array of spray cans to write linear text messages on the ground at a rate of 15 kilometers per hour."

In the same vein there's Bikes Against Bush "an interactive protest/performance occurring simultaneously online and on the streets of NYC during the Republican National Convention." Where this project got sexy was in using "a wireless Internet enabled bicycle outfitted with a custom-designed printing device, the Bikes Against Bush bicycle can print text messages sent from web users directly onto the streets of Manhattan in water-soluble chalk." Check out the video on the site of the bike in action.

Wired also did an article about this bike and its inventor, Joshua Kinberg.

You may not believe it but Kinberg got arrested for using his bike on August 28, 2004 at the 2004 Republican National Convention along with around 2,000 other peaceful protesters. His case was finally dismissed on January 20, 2005 with an "Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal" (see the nycdefense.com article for an explanation). Shameful behavior on the part of the authorities.

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