6 ms·

There was a brilliant Twitter thread last year showing a project to "hand write" with cnc robots thousands of personalised letters for a mailout. They initially

There was a brilliant Twitter thread last year showing a project to "hand write" with cnc robots thousands of personalised letters for a mailout. They initially started off with off the shelf hand writing robots, but ended up building their own massive ones to increase speed and efficiency. https://mobile.twitter.com/aarondfrancis/status/1438888219471491074 https://mobile.twitter.com/aarondfrancis/status/143888821947...

MrDunham 4y ago
I really wish they had opened sourced this. Was just thinking of exactly that post, thanks for finding it. It really makes a difference to have hand written with a pen as long as you have a font with multiple letter variants/subtly differences between the same letter used repeatedly.
- seydor 4y ago
  yes ,because what we need is airplane-loads of machine-produced paper notes to travel around the world
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Anyone who owns real estate in certain markets is already familiar with the mountains of “handwritten” notes offering to buy far under market value. This’ll just make it harder to detect.
- aarondf 4y ago
  Open sourced the hardware or the software part? (Note: I'm the author of that twitter thread.) The hardest part was probably the handwriting "generation." I put "generation" in quotes because it was mostly selecting one of the characters from the library of characters that we captured and putting it together with other characters. The hardware had a lot of hard spots, but I think they were mostly hard because that was my first real foray into hardware.
  - MrDunham 4y ago
    Both? The hardware? I loved what you did and would love to replicate it.
teddyh 4y ago
Discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28574908 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28574908 and here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28587458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28587458
moepstar 4y ago
https://nitter.net/aarondfrancis/status/1438888219471491074 https://nitter.net/aarondfrancis/status/1438888219471491074 The "mobile.twitter.com" link doesn't work (for me, on desktop).
Beltiras 4y ago
That was awesome! Thank you for the link.
mikkergp 4y ago
“How do we scale that feeling that someone got a personal handwritten note” is really dystopian.
- spicybright 4y ago
  Very reminiscent of the movie Her, where the main character worked at a letter writing service you could pay someone to write thoughtful letters to family and friends.
  - cm_silva 4y ago
    In Japan you can rent a family. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rental_family_service https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rental_family_service
    - landemva 4y ago
      In Nevada you can rent a girlfriend experience. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/sex-work-brothel-girlfriend-experience-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-985314/ https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/sex-wo...
      - enraged_camel 4y ago
        I think that has been a thing in Japan for a long time!
      - kyleee 4y ago
        surely not just in nevada?
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  I would have preferred a video FaceTime call from the business owner or one of the partners anyway.
  - flanbiscuit 4y ago
reaperducer 4y ago
Reinventing the wheel. Hand writing robots at scale was a market for decades from the 1950's. They went away when desktop publishing arrived.
- aarondf 4y ago
  Maybe, but what a fun wheel it was to reinvent! Honestly one of the more fun things I've done in my career. I guess I could've just made another static site generator though ;)
  - rob-olmos 4y ago
    Maybe a static site generator that throws in random noise/errors so it feels like a handwritten HTML/CSS site?
    - aarondf 4y ago
      Now we're talking!
sopooneo 4y ago
The real down-side to this, as with deepfakes, I think, is not that it makes fake things look real, but that it makes all real things possibly fake.
dundarious 4y ago
I've received seemingly hand-written "thank you/please buy more" notes from Soylent. Given the source, I have always suspected that they are an automated "forgery" in some sense. I wouldn't be surprised if they are truly hand-written, but it is interesting that I just can't accept them the same way as I do a hand-written note from, let's say, a local shop or a charity. (I don't recommend Soylent, I just use it sometimes when I'm feeling mildly self-destructive and not feeling like eating healthy food, so it's my occasional "harm reduction" alternative to getting fast-food or trash processed food)
aarondf 4y ago
Glad you enjoyed that! I built those robots :) That thread was previously posted to HN (linked below in some replies) and the responses were... mixed, to say the least!
generj 4y ago
As an AxiDraw pen plotter experimenter, I think business notes is the wrong market for this. I’ve always thought wedding invitations would be better. Rather than faking handwriting the pen is used much in the way an emboss or deboss is - to raise the quality and prestige of the document. Fountain pens allow for intricate ink sheen and color combinations. Customers are also not price sensitive.
- aarondf 4y ago
  In my experience (I created the robots in that twitter thread) the problem with the wedding invitations market is that they have to be almost totally perfect. With mass mail, you can have skew, slant, weird characters and it doesn't super matter.
olliecornelia 4y ago
tomatotomato37 4y ago
It's a shame this technology is used to deceive sincerity rather than just show off how advanced technology has become. Imagine an art house selling the "mass-produced" type of pieces you decorate hallways and hotels with, except they have a robot front and center in which you can watch the robot create your painting in real time!
waynesonfire 4y ago
and if you're ousted you're a manipulative prick in my book. i get all kinds of "hand written" marketing mail.

MrDunham 4y ago

I really wish they had opened sourced this. Was just thinking of exactly that post, thanks for finding it. It really makes a difference to have hand written with a pen as long as you have a font with multiple letter variants/subtly differences between the same letter used repeatedly.

seydor 4y ago
yes ,because what we need is airplane-loads of machine-produced paper notes to travel around the world
- bombcar 4y ago
  Anyone who owns real estate in certain markets is already familiar with the mountains of “handwritten” notes offering to buy far under market value. This’ll just make it harder to detect.
aarondf 4y ago
Open sourced the hardware or the software part? (Note: I'm the author of that twitter thread.) The hardest part was probably the handwriting "generation." I put "generation" in quotes because it was mostly selecting one of the characters from the library of characters that we captured and putting it together with other characters. The hardware had a lot of hard spots, but I think they were mostly hard because that was my first real foray into hardware.
- MrDunham 4y ago
  Both? The hardware? I loved what you did and would love to replicate it.

teddyh 4y ago

Discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28574908 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28574908 and here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28587458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28587458

moepstar 4y ago

https://nitter.net/aarondfrancis/status/1438888219471491074 https://nitter.net/aarondfrancis/status/1438888219471491074 The "mobile.twitter.com" link doesn't work (for me, on desktop).

Beltiras 4y ago

That was awesome! Thank you for the link.

mikkergp 4y ago

“How do we scale that feeling that someone got a personal handwritten note” is really dystopian.

spicybright 4y ago
Very reminiscent of the movie Her, where the main character worked at a letter writing service you could pay someone to write thoughtful letters to family and friends.
- cm_silva 4y ago
  In Japan you can rent a family. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rental_family_service https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rental_family_service
  - landemva 4y ago
    In Nevada you can rent a girlfriend experience. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/sex-work-brothel-girlfriend-experience-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-985314/ https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/sex-wo...
    - enraged_camel 4y ago
      I think that has been a thing in Japan for a long time!
    - kyleee 4y ago
      surely not just in nevada?
lotsofpulp 4y ago
I would have preferred a video FaceTime call from the business owner or one of the partners anyway.
- flanbiscuit 4y ago

reaperducer 4y ago

Reinventing the wheel. Hand writing robots at scale was a market for decades from the 1950's. They went away when desktop publishing arrived.

aarondf 4y ago
Maybe, but what a fun wheel it was to reinvent! Honestly one of the more fun things I've done in my career. I guess I could've just made another static site generator though ;)
- rob-olmos 4y ago
  Maybe a static site generator that throws in random noise/errors so it feels like a handwritten HTML/CSS site?
  - aarondf 4y ago
    Now we're talking!

sopooneo 4y ago

The real down-side to this, as with deepfakes, I think, is not that it makes fake things look real, but that it makes all real things possibly fake.

dundarious 4y ago

I've received seemingly hand-written "thank you/please buy more" notes from Soylent. Given the source, I have always suspected that they are an automated "forgery" in some sense. I wouldn't be surprised if they are truly hand-written, but it is interesting that I just can't accept them the same way as I do a hand-written note from, let's say, a local shop or a charity. (I don't recommend Soylent, I just use it sometimes when I'm feeling mildly self-destructive and not feeling like eating healthy food, so it's my occasional "harm reduction" alternative to getting fast-food or trash processed food)

aarondf 4y ago

Glad you enjoyed that! I built those robots :) That thread was previously posted to HN (linked below in some replies) and the responses were... mixed, to say the least!

generj 4y ago

As an AxiDraw pen plotter experimenter, I think business notes is the wrong market for this. I’ve always thought wedding invitations would be better. Rather than faking handwriting the pen is used much in the way an emboss or deboss is - to raise the quality and prestige of the document. Fountain pens allow for intricate ink sheen and color combinations. Customers are also not price sensitive.

aarondf 4y ago
In my experience (I created the robots in that twitter thread) the problem with the wedding invitations market is that they have to be almost totally perfect. With mass mail, you can have skew, slant, weird characters and it doesn't super matter.

olliecornelia 4y ago

tomatotomato37 4y ago

It's a shame this technology is used to deceive sincerity rather than just show off how advanced technology has become. Imagine an art house selling the "mass-produced" type of pieces you decorate hallways and hotels with, except they have a robot front and center in which you can watch the robot create your painting in real time!

waynesonfire 4y ago

and if you're ousted you're a manipulative prick in my book. i get all kinds of "hand written" marketing mail.