ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- An RIT photography professor is getting some attention for a curious contraption. Ted Kinsman designed a digital printer and it's not off base to ask him, "regular or decaf?"
Visit any college campus and you'll find it. Between tests and studying, coffee might be the key to survival.
"I work here, so I live off it pretty much," said RIT senior Ian Domianio.
The same might be said for professors. It's part of Ted Kinsman's daily routine.
"I think I had a half cup this morning, then you leave for work," Kinsman said.
In Rochester Institute of Technology's Photographic Arts and Sciences Department, Kinsman is also an inventor.
"The idea was to build a machine that would take a digital image and display it on paper, somehow," he said.
Instead of ink, Kinsman's digital printer uses coffee.
"People notice it a lot more because that perks their interest," Kinsman said. "Everybody gets a buzz out of this machine. There's a lot of bad puns, it's good to the last drip."
Puns aside, there is a reason Kinsman built it.
"It's kind of a goofy thing and it's not meant to make money," he said.
He finds the coffee drip printer is a good way to get kids interested in computer programming.
"You can hear it, see it dripping and young kids can touch it," Kinsman said.
Darkness of color is determined by the size of the coffee drip. Each image takes an hour or more to print and a day to dry.
"Wow, I'm surprised how accurate it is, and how meticulously it's laid out," Domiano said.
Kinsman's art engages the senses in more ways than one.
"We're at the bottom of the nose," Kinsman said. "I guarantee you, you will never get two images that are exactly the same."