This is the third piece in my “electric window” series, which began in December of 2007 when I stuffed a small pre-made frame with EL wire and a decorative acrylic panel as an entry to Gallery 101’s annual fundraiser / art auction, 101 Frames.

The year after, I made another EL wire based piece, and animated the wire; this year I will probably go with a smaller version of “electric window (iii)”. Here’s a shot of the insides:

This piece was originally the display portion of a weather-responsive work that draws patterns based on wind speed and direction data — as detected from an external weather meter — received wirelessly by the FM receiver board on the upper right:

Unfortunately the wireless link was giving me trouble, so the wind-based project was put on hold, but the remainder of the circuit (an Arduino-controlled pair of Sure Electronics LED display boards) made for a perfect addition to my exhibition with the Conjunction Collective.

Thanks to westfw’s library, gaining control of the LED displays with the Arduino was fairly straightforward. I found the Arduino’s on-board voltage regulator got pretty hot while running two LED displays, so I made a mini-shield with an external regulator to supply 5V to the Arudino and the LED displays:

Not the prettiest or neatest, but functional . . .

With some slight modifications to the original weather project code, I had a “simulated” drawing program using random direction and length variables:

Next I wrote a few more drawing routines for vertical lines and boxes; I tried horizontal lines as well, but didn’t like the look so much.

I’m anxious to get this piece working with the wind instrumentation again, and for this year’s 101 Frames I’m hoping to make a smaller version of an LED-based “electric window” with an IR proximity sensor so users can interact with the display patterns.

In the meantime, here’s a vid. of what I have so far, as shown at the Conjuction Collective show in Toronto this fall:

Similar to the video from my previous entry, I recorded the audio for this video straight from my drum machine into the video editor. While I’m not as pleased with the results musically, these exercises of spontaneously scoring lighting footage with coordinated beats/atmosphere are proving to be “studies” for future works involving light-responsive sound generating means coupled with sound-reactive lights.

I decided my participation in Ottawa Chinatown’s first Chinatown Remixed exhibition made for a great opportunity to try my hand at this whole Arduino thing. Given the front window of a local business in which to showcase a project, I envisioned an illuminated sign interacting with the pedestrian traffic out on the sidewalk.

With a helping hand from Deb, we built a sign from electroluminescent wire and used a first Arudino to control the various words and syllables of the exhibition title, “Chinatown Remixed.”

A second Arduino was paired with an ultrasonic sensor to create a proximity sensor placed outside the restaurant to detect pedestrians and send this information wirelessly to the sign inside (with an FM transmitter + receiver and the VirtualWire library).

The sidewalk activity detected by the sensor was used to trigger sequence changes to the words/syllables lit up on the sign. The governing concept of the project was to build an animated sign that was literally remixed by the community.

Here’s the official write-up that accompanied the piece on site:

“CHINATOWN REMIXED”

Interactive light installation

60” x 30”

Plexiglass, electroluminescent wire, custom electronics

This interactive lighting installation is activated by a custom-built, wireless motion sensor, which responds to nearby pedestrian and auto traffic. This motion triggers a random rearrangement of the sign’s syllables.

Aesthetically referencing traditional neon signage – found in abundance in Shanghai and “Chinatowns” around the world – the reflection of neighborhood activity is combined with an element of chance to create a play on words and meaning. The installation remixes the role of signage between informative and ambiguous.

For info on other works or to inquire about light commissions of all kinds, please visit www.aomalley.org.

Andrew + Deborah O’Malley

May, 2009

With the gracious support of the Ontario Arts Council.

Unfortunately I don’t have any pics of the build process, and the installed piece proved quite difficult to document, thanks to competing lighting levels and a lot of glare. Here’s a short video of the sign in action, though:

Not bad for a first Arduino project, sure beats a couple flashing LEDs

In all fairness, my previous experience with PIC microcontrollers and electronics obviously came into play with this project; combining that with the streamlined Arduino programming environment and vast array of libraries, tutorials, and examples, it feels like my embedded computing experience went from fighting traffic in a clunker to whizzing down the highway in a sports car.

and my Conduit sculpture

I realized that experimenting with new projects with similar lights would be easier with a common development platform . . .

As part of a larger project supported by an artist grant from the Ontario Arts Council, I was able to build a prototype light sequencer, based on a PIC 16F877 microprocessor and two custom solid-state-relay output boards:

The PIC model was chosen based on its native I/O capabilities (16 digital outputs and several digital and analog inputs), and the solid-state-relays were chosen based on their high current carrying capability and low on-resistance, resulting in a negligible voltage drop across the relay (I couldn’t find an ideal transistor with a consistently low voltage drop when switching different load types such as cold cathode tube ballasts vs. EL wire ballasts, and was thus dissatisfied with the amount of voltage I was losing just to the transistor when switched on).

The PIC controls the output relays to directly switch the power from an external power supply to the loads (lights, motors, etc.); the advantage of this arrangement is that the output voltage and total available power of the sequencer is governed by this power supply which can be easily substituted based on the voltage and current requirements of a particular project.

The modular design of the system — main processor board and separate relay boards — allows me to mount the sequencer on the back of fixtures

or house it in its own enclosure:

The control board also has screw terminals for attaching input modules, such as this prototype proximity sensor based on a Sharp IR sensor:

Having a modular, easy-to-connect framework for the controller, sensor modules, and lights allows me to quickly experiment with various interactive arrangements, and has lead to several site-specific, interactive lighting installations.

Below are a few sample videos of some temporary installations built with the system. These installations used several motion sensors to control the light colour based on the direction or location of people in the exhibition space, while controlling the speed of the sequence based on the number of people passing through the space; the installations’ behaviour were thereby a reflection of the human activity within the space.

Future plans for the sequencer include migrating from a PIC processor to an Arduino (simply by changing the processor board), making more input modules, and creating a wireless network between the input and output modules.

More info can be found here.