Wave this Programmable “Light Saber” to Light Paint Words and Images
Gavin of Sydney, Australia created an awesome 2-meter long programmable staff that makes painting giant words and images as easy as waving/walking the staff around during a long-exposure photograph. The staff, which he call the LightScythe (we would have called it the “Lightsaber”), was inspired by the Wi-Fi light painting project we shared here earlier this year.
The hardware is pretty simple. There’s a 2m programmable LED strip inside an acrylic tube, which is controlled from a small receiver and battery pack. A laptop PC with a wireless Xbee link sends the image data to the scythe at a specified time. [#]
The best part about this project is that everything — the hardware and the software — is open source, allowing anyone with enough technical know-how to make their own. If that’s you, head on over to the project’s page to get started!
Image credits: Photographs by Gavin and used with permission
