#UnPlugged: A Text-Fax Printer For Staying Connected to Your Loved Ones, Even When Offline

Designed for moments when you might feel too anxious to be on your phone, but too lonely to stay off it, this device allows select text messages to be printed at the push of a button.

Harsha Pillai ’25 has experienced the feeling of digital overwhelm firsthand. Inspired by her own experience, she created #Unplugged, a text-to-fax printer designed to sit inconspicuously on your bookshelf, allowing you to stay unplugged while still receiving words of encouragement from a chosen support system.

Left: The form for Pillai’s prototype. Right: The hidden innards of the text-to-fax Arduino circuit.

Pillai leveraged Arduino techniques and IFTTT learned in our first-year Making Studio course to build her initial prototype. Her materials included a mini thermal printer, wifi board, logic level shifter, and an abundance of patience.

Pillai is keen to develop her concept and prototype further. For one, due to IFTTT’s limitations when it comes to the text inputs, #Unplugged would require its own server if it evolved into a product. Its capabilities would also need to extend beyond text message to include WhatsApp, Bolin, WeChat, and other messaging apps. As for the physical form, Pillai is interested in exploring possibilities for downsizing to a sleeker form, mechanics allowing.

Pillai designed this book jacket to fit over the cardboard form and fit in with other books on your shelf.

Printing out the cover on the industrial printer in the Visual Futures Lab.

This project allowed Pillai the chance to flex her skills as both an engineer and designer, and has inspired her to be even more ambitious moving forward. We can’t wait to see (and share!) what else she creates.

Lastly—if you’re feeling inspired and want to try making your own #Unplugged device, you can follow Pillai’s Instructable.

Pillai’s text-to-fax printer allows you to feel connected to your loved ones, no matter how far, while staying unplugged.