The idea of the project is to use two mirrors, two motors to move the mirrors, a laser pointer, and a PIC microcontroller with serial input to receive the image from the host computer and control the mirrors and laser. The image will be conditioned in and transferred by Processing. The result will be an image that looks a bit like a big POV or a red and black old style computer display. The project its still a work in progress because only control of the x axes was realized, next the author will add control on the y axes and the project should be finished.
Laser Display POV: [Link]
POV is a really cool concept, similar to the way a television works, an image or series of colors is spewed out and ‘blend’ together because the light pulses occur at a speed faster than our eyes can properly observe. thus like a camera with a long exposure, we see a blur and this blur can be made directly into an image of your choosing.
DIY POV(Persistence of Vision): [Link]
Hard to say the words? Make them appear in the air. Customize your messages like “I Love U”, “Sorry!”, or images in JPG/BMP format, install them in the 32-LED Light Show Stick via usb cable. Wave the Light Show stick horizontally, then your message/image will be created in the air by a strip of red LED. Approximate 85 characters can be stored. Ideal for night party or concert, or in the situation you feel hard to say it!
Light Show Stick – commercial POV: [Link]
Since i was a little kid and didn’t knew anything about microcontroller’s , i wanted to have such a device on my bike wheels, i didn’t even knew what is called. Now that i know how is called, how it works, and i can build one, i don’t ride bikes anymore so it would be kind of useless to me. But it still remains really cool. For those who still ride a bike and want to add some bling on it, this will sure be an eye catcher.
Wheel POV: [Link]
Red digits on this photo appear to float in the air in front of the clock. This illusion is based on inertia of a human eye. If LED-formed digits will periodically and frequently enough flash, they will appear solid and steady. And since the matrix of digits is formed by a mechanically scanned single line of LEDs, and the fast rotating clock body is not visible, it leaves digits “suspended” in the air.
The first clock using this concept was built (and PIC microcontroller code written) by Bob Blick, please visit his page for yet more photos of his original clock and clocks built by other people. The heart of this clock is PIC16F84 microcontroller. (Older PIC16C84 version works just fine). The microcontroller is programmed with the code provided below. If you don’t have a PIC programmer, it isn’t difficult to make one. A few parts (for a couple bucks) connected to the parallel port of your PC will program the PIC for you.
POV clock based on PIC16F84: [Link]
