I like mechanical pixels, and specifically non-LCD / cathodic screens. Below is a list of existing devices.
1. Daniel Rozin : Spinning penguins (Daniel Rozin)
This guy has a lot of cool mechanical bit matrix displays, including the three below. A full list is visible at http://www.smoothware.com/danny/.
A kinect device does the bit-capture job, and some custom software activates the N×M rotating penguin-equipped motors.
https://bitforms.art/archives/rozin/penguins-mirror
2. Rotating wooden blocks (Daniel Rozin)
Light comes from the top of the screen, and slightly rotating the blocks changes their color.
http://www.smoothware.com/danny/woodenmirror.html https://bitforms.art/archives/rozin/wooden-mirror-2
Finally, in the same style his rotating peg mirror and his weave mirror.
3. Faux fur Pom pom (Daniel Rozin)
Same concept, a set of small motors are now pushing black pom-pom(s?) in front of the whites.
https://bitforms.art/archives/rozin/pompom-mirror
4. Magnetic cells (and other electronic papers)
Well, wikipedia says it better than me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper
5. Magnetic solenoid & rotating spindle (hikikomorphism)
https://twitter.com/hikikomorphism/status/1078814565633282048 : « Mechanical pixel prototype. Small panel with embedded magnet switches orientation to show black or white side based on direction of current through coil. Thanks to local HRT maximalist @beka_valentine and anarchist hackerspace @noisebridge for helping me source magnet wire »
That's basically a manual minimalist rotating motor. (You know, Maxwell, etc.) Pretty cool.
6. A fuckton (metric) of flipping circles : « flip-dot »
In an unsourced youtube video, you have a large example : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgmawcQ93GA.
And in this Master Thesis, Robert Zacharias (2017) shows a set of good things :
- http://rzach.me/blog/thesis/research/bus%20stop%20machine/2017/03/01/Magnetic-mechanical-pixels.html http://www.rzach.me/blog/thesis/research/bus%20stop%20machine/2017/03/07/Proof-of-pixel-concept.html http://rzach.me/thesis.html
7. ?
Please send me on twitter any more example of such a screen, thanks !