The Crayolascope - an Analog Depth Display

The Crayolascope - an Analog Depth Display from blair neal on Vimeo.

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@laserpilot

Using 12 toys from Crayola called "Glow Books", I hacked together a charming prototype of what a ~1ft deep 3D display might look like. This would be a similar concept to animating some of those famous depth paintings on dozens of panes of lit glass.

Uses an Arduino Mega to drive it all.

For the animation, I traced a cube I had digitally animated and printed out, frame by frame.

You can control the speed, scrub position/frame, and make a fade effect.

The Crayolascope has been exhibited at the NY Hall of Science in Queens, NY as part of their series that teaches kids about different aspects of animation. It has also been shown at Launchpad in Brooklyn, NY as part of the Slap Dash art series..

For the next version, I'd like to play with more powerful lighting and more full edge lighting, as well as solve the issue of internal reflectivity between panels degrading the quality of the "image". Once the animation goes in about 14-18 frames, it becomes very difficult to see from one side unless it is in a very dark space. I would love to get it much deeper than that, or at least make a finer Z-space resolution.

Would love to exhibit this somewhere again if anyone has a space(kids love it)! And let me know if you have suggestions about types of glass and coating to use...

Music is Beach House - Myth

I was on the fence posting this one as it's not clear if this employs any video synthesis, but it is a cross over with DIY and the applications for synthesis could be interesting. That and it's pretty darn cool. And I do like Beach House. Check them out with a Sequential Circuits Prelude performing this track live on Letterman here.