When you want to deliver power to components directly, and not tax the onboard power regulator on the Arduino, here's one way to make an external, regulated source:  read more »

So sixteen LEDs fading up and down aren't enough? How about 48?

My earlier post showed a rough project using three Texas Instruments 5940 chips, but didn't include much detail. Some of you have been asking for a bit more info, so here goes:  read more »

Here is a simple example of how the new physics engine in Adobe Director 11 can be used in a collision scenario. Try the demo. (A new window will open. You may need to click in the window to get started.)  read more »

This is a working prototype of a 4" x 6" art book in which each page presents a changing light display, based on which pages have been opened or closed. The displays are a fanciful interpretation of changing landscapes at various times of day and season.  read more »

Let's say you want to use live video as an input source for an installation, multi-touch screen, or some other purpose.  read more »

Human vision doesn't see into the infrared part of the spectrum. But webcams can see near-infrared light, the sort that's given off in remote controls, for example. This becomes really useful when you want to sense motion or do multitouch detection, especially in environments where the visible light might interfere with video detection.  read more »

Having somewhat mastered the fading effects with the 5940, I proceeded to scale up to the first visual challenge: Using groups of RGB LEDs to fade through various color schemes in a prototype arrangement.  read more »

This description includes both very basic descriptions and some fairly advanced concepts, neither of which are very detailed, so my apologies to both newbies and developers ;-)

To vary the brightness of an LED, which is essentially a binary device (it is either on or off...), requires some coding gymnastics, with the help of a little hardware.  read more »

In research for our electronics-embedded art-book project, I wanted to be able to generate a range of possible colors. Combining red, green, and blue light, and varying the intensity of each channel (using the PWM ports of an Arduino board) seemed like a good idea.  read more »

Ongoing and past experiments, aiming for beauty, strangeness, technical perfection, and sometimes all of the above.  read more »