Breakfast LLC (Brooklyn, NY) bills itself as a company that can rapidly design and prototype systems and develop IP for client companies and brands. The most recent device produced by Breakfast took 1½ years to create. It is called a “Thread Screen” and it is unlike any other display of which I am aware.
First of all, the Thread Screen system is big at 11 feet high, 9 feet wide and 3 feet deep. The system is composed of 200 modules of the type illustrated in the two figures below and to the left. Each module is each made up of 32 spools of multicolored threaded fabric. The 6,400 spools that make up the complete system are arranged in an 80 x 80 array which is the resolution of the display.
Each spool contains a 5½ foot long ribbon-like length of threaded fabric. Each ribbon is made up of 36, 1¾ inch long segments. Each segment has a different color. A motor is associated with each spool and serves to drive the ribbon over the top of the spool moving it in a manner similar to that of a conveyor belt. In operation, the ribbon is advanced until such time as the proper color is presented at the front of the module.
Every ribbon includes a reflective strip. This strip is scanned by an infrared sensor that allows the system to determine the color that each spool is currently presenting thus allowing confirmation that the color is as intended. The system is designed to correct for any slip that may occur in ribbon position.
The entire Thread Screen display is comprised of over 200,000 parts. To put this number into context, it is more than 8 times the number of parts found in a typical car. Every component in the Thread Screen display was custom designed, engineered and manufactured from scratch.
The finished display system weighs about 2,000 lb. Supporting all this weight required a substantial framework. The strong but light weight superstructure that was designed to support the system is composed of over 100 individual aluminum pieces.
The finished Thread Screen display system is illustrated in the figure on the right.
The Thread Screen was developed as part of an advertising campaign conducted by the clothing company Forever 21. During the period between July 22nd and July 28th, user Instagram photos hash tagged with #F21ThreadScreen were automatically captured and formatted for presentation on the Thread Screen display. The display was housed in Breakfast’s New York studio. The photos sent in by users were presented on the Thread Screen display one after the other. Each user was sent an auto-edited video of the imagery on the Thread Screen display as it transformed to present the Instagram photo that they submitted.
Several videos are available on-line that discuss the construction of the Thread Screen system and show the display in operation. One such video is appended at this end of this article. I think that you will find that the imagery presented by the Thread Screen can be quite beautiful and that it is fun to watch as the images change. -Arthur Berman
