Here’s What An Arduino and Twilio Powered Telegraph Looks Like

Here’s What An Arduino and Twilio Powered Telegraph Looks Like

I hate voicemail. That’s why I text my friends. Sorry, I should elaborate. I mean I text a Twilio number that interfaces with Arduino to translate my text message into morse code which is then tapped out by an old telegraph.

Is my means of communication uncommon? Yes.
Is it pretty rad? Yes.
Am I abusing sarcastic rhetorical questions? Most definitely.

Noam Zomerfeld, a design student at California College of the Arts, wanted to unpack how basic communication systems work. Instead of diving into communications apps and stacks, he went old school. He decided to build a rudimentary telegraph with just a piece of wood, batteries and wire. From there, brought the old school hardware (telegraphs still count as hardware) to the new school of APIs and Arduino interfaces.

Here’s how Noam’s telegraph works. Any passerby can text Noam’s Twilio number. The text string is parsed by an Arduino in to morse code and tapped out by the telegraph.

Take a look at Noam’s creation below and read more about it on Temboo here.