I converted a typewriter into a physical AI terminal. When you type in a question, Claude will type back a response.This was primarily a hardware hack. To allow Claude to type, I had to electronically simulate phantom keypresses. This meant fully intercepting the keyboard signals and re-routing them to be processed by an Arduino.Like all keyboards, the typewriter keys were wired in a matrix. When a key is pressed, it connects a row to a column. By intercepting all of the 8x rows and 8x columns, I could scan the keyboard for keypresses and send back “phantom typing” at will.This was slightly fiddly with 32 pins to tap and no space inside the enclosure. I added the electronics onto the back, including a Raspberry Pi Zero as the brains.Claude’s physical formIt’s also a full linux terminal, since the intercepted keypresses feed directly into the Raspberry Pi over serial.1 This is pretty fun to play with.For some reason, seeing an LLM physically manifested is quite compelling. Watching something intelligent whir and clunk into life - answering anything you throw at it - felt like rediscovering LLMs for the first time.If you’re in London and would like to have a go, drop me a note :)1I was inspired by Artillect’s Linux terminal typewriter and used a similar hardware approach. I’m very thankful for his documentation which saved me loads of time!No posts