Kilopixel Creator Kills Livestream Switch Before Woodblock Display Hits Crysis Point

All good things must come to an end, and so too must the blocky glory of the Kilopixel. As the wood and robotic marvel crested the 200,000-pixel mark, its creator pulled the metaphorical plug.

According to its creator, Ben Holmen, there had been 421 submissions to be drawn and 206,204 pixels flipped. The machine had also drawn no representations of male genitalia ("not for lack of trying," Holmen noted.)

There are no plans for a follow-up machine. Holmen told us, "Building one of these was enough of an effort, this is a one of a kind device!" but it will lurk in the background of his webcam during meetings with a private URL so coworkers can play with it. We're confident that everything will be fine.

Above: The complete woodblock display, and below: a close-up of the wooden blocks turning to create an image – Pictures (c) Ben Holmen

Holmen has also added a new mode where a random submission from the livestream will be redrawn. He said, "It's like surprise art in my office every day!"

We're delighted that the project is not being dismantled and fully understand when Holmen says, "I knew I'd get tired of babysitting a 24/7 livestream. It's a hassle!" As it turned out, the livestream lasted for eleven days before Holmen put up a "that's all for Season One" message.

The Kilopixel, which consisted of a robot arm and prodder flipping 19mm square wooden blocks to render a monochrome image, remains a gloriously ridiculous device. It might have taken Holmen six years and quite a bit of experimentation to construct, but we're glad he did.

• Getting touchy-feely with a Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2
• Tinker with LLMs in the privacy of your own home using Llama.cpp
• Robots can program each other's brains with AI, scientist shows
• Fungus-inspired Linux hack gives Amiga a Doom-only brain

The future might involve a monthly stream ("no more 24/7 stream"), and Holmen is open to suggestions. He said, "I'm excited to turn control over to someone with an interesting idea for a game or collaborative project."

Register reader Ball boy opened a comment with the title "Yeah but can it play...."

We can see where this is going.

"Be a *very* slow game of deathmatch but the resolution's about right to bring back some memories ;-)"

Another reader, David 132, said, "DOOM upside down spells "WOOD" (ok, give me the benefit of the doubt on the backwards D) so... 'mind blown' as the kids say." ®