So, a few weeks ago, I made a gadget that I called the “Ice Breaker”. It was a simple persistence of vision toy that would spell out the word “Hello” on your hand as you wave to someone. The original didn’t work too well, so I made a new version that works great! Here’s a video:
Stick around until the end to see what was going on with the old version.
Whaaat? You can do that?! You need phototransistors or photodiodes silly! Turns out, you don’t. IT’S A CONSPIRACY!
Seriously though, LEDs can be used as photo detectors. It’s not as simple as using a proper photodiode, but it’s a pretty neat trick and can save you a few parts if you’re working on a budget.
If you saw this guy at a bar, would you say hello?
No? What if he shaved and took a shower? Continue reading
When I was at the rock gym last week, one of the staff members had some gloves with blinking LEDs in the finger tips and was dancing around like an idiot. A friend of mine was jealous and said in passing “you should invent something for me to swing around so I can go to a rave.”
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