To develop an idea for my project, I began by thinking of many small ideas as potential requirements for my final project idea. Some of these ideas were to build a sculpture that would use math to produce changing light patterns, to control light based on music, include a motor to make the sculpture kinetic, to use water or some other fluid in the project, and to use a ball bearing to reflect light.
I started feeling inspired after thinking of the idea to base my project around a certain LED part. The part is a 24 RGB LED NeoPixel Light Ring, which Adafruit sells. Images of the ring are below, and it can be found at https://www.adafruit.com/products/1586.
The first idea that I thought of was to mount refractors around the ring to refract the light onto a single point that is a certain height above the center of the ring. Below is a diagram of the idea.
I later though of a more complicated idea. My second idea called “Rotating Tower” is to place a cylinder that extends upwards from the center of the light ring. A motor would be used to rotate the cylinder. The cylinder would have parts extending out from it that would interact with the light, which is projected upwards around the cylinder from the ring. I then thought of the idea of building a structure around the cylinder. Here are diagrams of the idea with and without the structure:
Finally, I thought of several additional ideas, which are not fully developed yet. Here are the additional ideas:
- Add a sensor to detect the current angle of the cylinder.
- Add a knob for the viewer to change the behavior of the lighting and movement of the sculpture.
- Add a feature that releases stored water as vapor to reflect light.
- Use dripping water to trigger lighting effects.