The traditional toaster has two heating elements that uniformly heat the two sides of your slice of bread.

The dotmatrix toaster has, in addition, individual small heating elements (pixels) that are placed close to the bread, imparting additional heat to selected points under software control.

You could download a picture to it via usb or bluetooth before inserting your toast-to-be and have your toast printed the way you want it to be.

The ultimate geek kitchen accessory.
-- neelandan, May 08 2006

Color print with jam Color_20print_20with_20jam
Authored by [Ehrm]. [Letsbuildafort, May 08 2006]

CNC Toast printing. http://students.oli...jroskowski/toaster/
Yeah - thats pretty sweet! [Letsbuildafort, May 08 2006]

Toastwriter Toastwriter
Self-promoting similar idea, but in words rather than images. [hidden truths, May 08 2006]

Toast Text Messaging Toast_20Text_20Messaging
Actually baked "Weather forecasts and text messages on toast" from [hippo] [hidden truths, May 08 2006]

Actual Toast Text Messaging http://news.bbc.co....ci/tech/1264205.stm
By a design student at Brunel university. [hidden truths, May 08 2006]

BBC News: Virgin Mary' toast fetches $28,000 http://news.bbc.co....mericas/4034787.stm
The grilled cheese sandwich RobertKidney remembers. [jutta, May 08 2006]

(?) "Pop Art" Toaster http://www.poparttoaster.com/index.htm
Exchangeable templates for sale with different themes. [jutta, Oct 03 2006]

Zuse Toast Printer http://blog.scifi.c...oast_printer_i.html
Downloadable images. From Inseq Design link:"... it is possible to burn black & white pictures with a resolution of 12 to 12 pixels into your toast using a line by line toasting - a technology similar to early matrix printers." [jurist, Oct 11 2006]

Baked! http://www.reghardw...9/11/wacky_toaster/
as will all ideas on here be, one day [Loris, Sep 13 2008]

I thought that this had been done before. After a quick but fruitless search I'm still not entirely convinced that I thought wrong.
-- Texticle, May 08 2006


I'm with you, [Tex]. I think its been done before.
-- Letsbuildafort, May 08 2006


I'm sure I've seen it too - printing toaster - sorry Neelandan - happens to everyone.
-- xenzag, May 08 2006


There we go - a couple of college students made an actual, running CNC toast machine! USB image upload and everything back in 2005. Link's right there. Granted it cost $40-large, but its been done before!
-- Letsbuildafort, May 08 2006


uh - well, my idea was that of an array of tiny heating elements (needles?) in close proximity to the bread, being driven individually on and off to form a picture with shades of brown.
-- neelandan, May 08 2006


Ha! For 'Daisywheel Toaster' but that would be more of a branding device.

We used to have a 3-colour plotter - A series of wires and pulleys dragged a pen across the paper that was rolled into and out of the machine, giving vertical control - It was great for drawing graphs, but it had to write out all its letters 'by hand' and printing text was an absolute nightmare.

Still, the concept could be employed in the toaster world by squirting butter (or water) onto the bread in a pattern, making it more resistant to toasting, and leaving behind a non-toasted imprint on the finished toasted breads.
-- zen_tom, May 08 2006


I've linked a couple of similar ideas. The last is a stencil type thing but it shows the user the upcoming weather, which is just plain brilliant.
-- hidden truths, May 08 2006


I thought this said 'Dominatrix Toaster', but then again, the idea that led to has probably been baked too.
-- imaginality, May 08 2006


I saw dominatrix also.

How about individual condiment spray jets that can print in patterns. Maybe blueberry for cyan, butter for yellow, currant for magenta, and uh.. hmmm.... err..., squid ink for black? or maybe that is where you use the laser.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, May 08 2006


I vaguely remember someone having a piece of toast with an image of the Virgin Mary or something similar and selling it on ebay.

Having read [Letsbuildafort]'s link, it makes me wonder if someone somewhere is using a cooking torch or similar to produce 'miraculous' toast. It could be quite lucrative.
-- RobertKidney, May 08 2006


The girl in that "Virgin Mary" sandwich looks like a slut.
-- phundug, Oct 03 2006


[stares down at feet and mumbles under breath]
I saw 'dominatrix' too.
-- DrBob, Sep 15 2008



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