Thursday, May 15, 2008

Philips LumaLive, LEDs embedded in flexible material.



Lumalive light-emitting textiles is very attractive technology developed by Philips.

A lumalive display panel with 14x14 RGB leds, using a special driver board, you can download the animation or text message via USB.


Philips Lumalive is a new medium to convey emotions and messages. It creates a positive spirit and boosts your energy level. We use colorful dynamic animations on textile products like garments, to make an unexpected striking appearance.
By integrating multicolor LEDs (light-emitting diodes) into textile objects Philips Lumalive transforms them into communication platforms, while their textile look & feel retains. This is a distinctive way to experience, communicate and personalize.





Links:
LumaLive by Philips

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

DIY EL BackLit Photo Frame.



Electroluminescent(EL) technology always uses in the backlit of small LCD. From wikipedia:

Electroluminescence is the result of radiative recombination of electrons and holes in a material (usually a semiconductor). The excited electrons release their energy as photons - light


Anyway, it is good for lighting.

I got the EL panel in a local store which should be powder phosphor-based electroluminescent panel. It is a 3.5" x 4.6" white light panel.



It included an adapter for converting 12VDC to AC for the EL panel.

Let's see how we can make use of this EL lamp.


1. Use for slice viewing


2. Put a Post-It on it, and you can see a growing Post-It in the dark.


3. For home lighting, illuminate your Toys.

4. A BackLit Photo Frame

Step 1 -
To make a DIY backLit photo frame, you can get a large photo frame in store or you can make one yourself. Here we are:


Step 2 -
Glue the panel in the back cover of the photo frame. You can see there is about 1.5 inch space between the photo glass panel and the back cover. We like to have some distances apart the EL panel and the glass to diffuse the strong illumination of the EL.



Step 3 -
Power Up.



It looks alot better on my desk, sorry for my poor photo skill. Let's see the photo frame in action in the below youtube video. Enjoy It.

Anyone who want to get this EL panel (3.5" x 4.6"), We can order it for you. It is only US$15, and $5 for shipping to US and Canada. For payment, We use paypal. Please contact us: order@bitartist.org

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Art robot play music learning from surrounding.

Simple automatic instruments are constructed from local materials and objects on site. The system learns the sounds it can make by trying out its instruments, and then uses its range of sounds to try to reproduce the rhythmic and melodic qualities of sounds such as the voices of visitors. It then loops and alters these imitative sequences into improvised compositions. (That last part's not done yet, so you won't see it in the video.)

It is very cool, the robot plays the instruments with servo motors until it matches the surrounding music/tone. It needs sometime to make it right, still it is an amazing project.

Please check out the video:


installation proposal for artbots 2008 from ranjit on Vimeo.