Memory box
By Ben Everard. Posted
This article was originally published as part of HackSpace magazine, which has since been incorporated into Raspberry Pi Official Magazine.
Reddit user Kind-Rope5478 built this video player using a Raspberry Pi 4, a touchscreen, a pair of 5 W 2-inch speakers, an NFC card reader, and a couple of other bits and bobs. Videos are stored on NFC cards, and play automatically when the card is inserted into the side of the machine. We’ve seen this kind of thing before, but what caught our eye is the beautiful oak woodwork and brass screws; apparently the maker only had access to hand tools and an old drill-press, but even so, we think there’s a great mid-century aesthetic here.

What makes this build so special, however, is that the code for reading the cards, playing the videos, and displaying the date, time, and a randomly chosen quotation, was all written by artificial intelligence. Apparently it took a few attempts, and the code still crashes occasionally, but ChatGPT eventually came up with something that works (most of the time).
Ben is the Editor of HackSpace magazine. When not wrangling words, he enjoys cycling, gardening, and attempting to identify wild mushrooms.
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