Artist Blair Neal, as many other great creators have before him, turned to children's toys as the source of inspiration for his latest project. Crayolascope is a rudimentary 3D display hacked together from several Glow Books, a light-up play on a flip-book from the titular company. The installation, currently housed at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing, layers 12 of its component clear plastic sheets to create a roughly one-foot deep display that plays a simple pre-drawn animation. The whole thing is controlled by an Arduino Mega, that can either play back the neon scribbles at varying speeds (controlled by a knob built into the console) or scrub through frame by frame. Neal isn't quite done tweaking the Crayolascope either. As it stands he's limited to between 14 and 18 frames, before it becomes too difficult to see through the sheets. And it requires near total darkness for optimal operation. To see it in action check out the video after the break.

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Crayolascope hacks toys into foot-thick 3D display originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With a desire to find out how a deep display would look, video artist Blair Neal created the Crayolascope, a fantastic 3D depth display out of a dozen hacked Crayola Glow Books. An Arduino Mega is driving the display and the user can adjust the speed of the pre-drawn animation or scrub through the frames. The unconventional display was exhibited at The New York Hall of Science (home of World Maker Faire New York) as part of the animation exhibit and he says that it’s a big hit with kids. He also has a few plans for the next version:

I’d like to play with more powerful lighting and more full edge lighting, as well as solve the issue of internal reflectivity between panels degrading the quality of the “image”. Once the animation goes in about 14-18 frames, it becomes very difficult to see from one side unless it is in a very dark space. I would love to get it much deeper than that, or at least make a finer Z-space resolution.

[Thanks, Blair!]