ABSTRACT
A lot of handheld toys and games incorporate small LCD screens. In general-purpose LCD character displays and video monitors a grid of pixels is bit-mapped by a microprocessor that turns individual pixels on and off to “draw” any character or image, etch-a-sketch style. In cheap toys, on the other hand, the screen oft en contains a handful of “ready-made” graphic components: lips, a nose, and pair of ears are turned on and off against a printed cardboard backdrop to add distinguishing features to Mr. Potato’s otherwise generic head, for example. Th ese rebus-like images take on new meaning when the background is removed-leaving the body parts fl oating like a medium’s apparitions-or superimposed on an alternative drawing or photograph that you provide (Mr. Turniphead? Baby Sister rev. 2.0?).
