SweepScreen: Sweeping Programmable Surfaces to Create Low-fi Displays Everywhere

SweepScreen is a digital paintbrush enabling the printing of low-fidelity lasting free form images. It is made of a row of electromagnets that turn on and off in a specific pattern while the user sweeps across the magnetophoretic surface, thus producing a custom image. Despite being low fidelity (black & white, static images), SweepScreen works on passive surfaces to create bistable images. It can therefore replace physical paper on notice boards, packaging or other labeling systems. It can also be used to fast prototype static free form displays to better understand interactions with new display form factors. This could be of interest for the shape-changing community which struggles to access manufactured free form displays. We present our concept and proof-of-concept prototypes that can print images on flat free form surfaces. We show the results of performance evaluations to test the viability of the device and finish with a discussion about current limitations.