WonderDome

The WonderDome is an LED-based art project begun in 2013. There are six LED strips, each 5 meters long and containing 240 LEDs. Each LED is independently addressable and supports 24-bit RGB color. The WonderDome runs Processing on a small ARM-based Linux computer to generate the visual effects.

To-Do

The project is currently in progress, and a lot of work remains to be done! This section gives a breakdown of the tasks in the various areas of the project.

Hardware

  • decide on a layout for the LED strips
  • select and buy ~31 meters of 1” ID tubing to encase the LED strips in
  • construct enclosure to secure and protect the electronics
  • determine max length from electronics to the PP and construct a combined power/ethernet cable

Software

  • create user account for WD software
  • install Processing on the CB
  • test headless Processing rendering to LEDs
  • set up repository for source code
  • determine how to build/deploy processing and control panel to the WD user
  • reliability engineering – keep web server and processing alive while CB is on

Inputs

  • test USB microphone for sensitivity/pickup
  • look into LeapMotion library and Processing integration
  • construct non-phone mechanism for basic interaction with the WD (gestures?)
  • design system to pass input data from phones (ideally JS) to Processing

Visualizations

  • design/implement input interfaces
  • design/implement rendering interfaces
  • utility sketch to turn off the LEDs
  • utility sketch for full white LEDs
  • utility sketch to draw a test pattern (run at startup to fix slow first rendering)

Control Panel

  • set up Rails(?) site to provide admin controls to the WD
  • “remote” page which offers buttons, sliders, captures accellerometer, etc

Hardware

The hardware making up the WonderDome can be broken down into four categories: power, networking, computing, and display.

Power

Networking

Computing

Display

References

This section contains links to other references related to the project.

Hardware

PixelPusher

Processing