Computer-Aided Lego Art Project 112
rsk writes "Justin Voskuhl, a Google engineer, in a 2-fold bid to fight boredom and figure out something to cover a large barren wall in his living room, one weekend developed a Java program using an annealing algorithm to figure out the best layout and colors of Lego blocks to reproduce a source image exclusively in Lego blocks inside a frame. He plans to release the source code soon. I probably would have just painted the wall ..."
Great Tags (Score:2, Funny)
Ah memories.... (Score:3, Funny)
Reminds me of the time my buddy and I were playing some 301 at the dart board. Both of us were pretty wasted. I discovered he couldn't subtract, and that was giving him an advantage, so I started keeping score. Then we discovered I also was too wasted to subtract.
We decided I would sit down and code a score keeping program with a text-based GUI (similar to ye olde Vitamin C Screen Utilities). Each player just entered their darts 10, 13, etc. or D20 for a double 20 T13 for triple 13, and B/DB for bullseye and double bull, then the code would do the math. Apparently writing a parser and an event loop with some event handlers taps a part of my brain unhindered by all the alcohol, etc.
Re:I wonder what computer was used (Score:3, Funny)
That was my bad, Justin sent me some pictures and I popped them up cause I thought it was awesome... and then I realized what "Slashdotted" meant like 35 seconds later.
Re:Ah memories.... (Score:2, Funny)
Lego Art Robot - In Lego (Score:3, Funny)
What would be really cool would be a robot arm that assembles any source image in a Lego target at a specified scale, after the software calculates exactly which and how many bricks are required in the "palette" bin.
And if that robot arm were made from Lego Mindstorms, that would be even cooler.
If a program could run a Mindstorms arm that is totally rudimentary, put together in under 15 minutes by a human, then upgrade itself into the arm required to assemble these images into Lego sculptures, and then assemble the sculpture, well that would be the coolest.
Re:In a frame on his wall? Really? (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, it's easier than that. :) Model with 1x1 blocks on the first pass, using standard interpolation limiting to your available palette colors, then combine horizontally adjacent blocks with the same color as 1xN blocks according to availability.
And then write it in C++ instead of Java.
Re:Huh? (Score:1, Funny)
The guy works for GOOGLE though. It's INNOVATIVE.