Etch-A-Snap, A Brilliant Raspberry Pi Powered Camera That Slowly Outputs Images as Etch-A-Sketch Drawings

Engineer Martin Fitzpatrick of Two Bit Arcade has created the “Etch-A-Snap”, a unique camera powered by Raspberry Pi that very slowly outputs images as magnetic drawings on the attached Pocket Etch-a-Sketch. The camera takes the picture, the picture is reduced to its simplest representation and is automatically sketched onto the board with the help of stepper motors that drive the drawing wheels in the proper directions.

Etch-A-Snap is (probably) the worlds first Etch-A-Sketch Camera. Powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero (or Zero W) it snaps photos just like any other camera but outputs them by drawing to a Pocket Etch-A-Sketch screen. Quite slowly.

Etch a Snap Front and Back

Fitzgerald demonstrated this process with a picture of Doraemon and a deer.

EtchaSnap Source Photo

via Hackaday

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.