[Hunter] wanted to do something a bit more interesting for his holiday lights display last year. Rather than just animated lights, he wanted something that was driven by data. In this case, his display was based on the mood of people in his city. We’ve seen a very similar project in the past, but this one has a few notable differences.

The display runs off of an Arduino. [Hunter] is using an Ethernet shield to connect the Arduino to the Internet. It then monitors all of the latest tweets from users within a 15 mile radius of his area. The tweets are then forwarded to the Alchemy Sentiment API for analysis. The API uses various algorithms and detection methods to identify the overall sentiment within a body of text. [Hunter] is using it to determine the general mood indicated by the text of a given tweet.

Next [Hunter] needed a way to somehow display this information. He opted to use an LED strip. Since the range of sentiments is rather small, [Hunter] didn’t want to display the overall average sentiment. This value doesn’t change much over short periods of time, so it’s not very interesting to see. Instead, he plots the change made since the last sample. This results in a more obvious change to the LED display.

Another interesting thing to note about this project is that [Hunter] is using the snow in his yard to diffuse the light from the LEDs. He’s actually buried the strip under a layer of snow. This has the result of hiding the electronics, but blurring the light enough so you can’t see the individual LEDs. The effect is rather nice, and it’s something different to add to your holiday lights display. Be sure to check out the video below for a demonstration.

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Inspired by science fiction movies, this DIYer created a doomsday device prop complete with pull-pin, epic LED lighting, and countdown timer.  When his microwave broke, he salvaged its innards to build this device.  Overall, this project is a great way to improve your electrical, mechanical, and creative design skills.

Inside the device is an Arduino which coordinates the communication between the push buttons, clock timer and lighting effects.  The bulky mass of electronics seen at the bottom of the device are high power hardware from the guts of the microwave.

Additionally, an old garden light was used for the “core” of the device and ancient tape recorder buttons were resurrected for pushbuttons.  When you’re ready to build your own apocalypse device (or perhaps just an epic looking alarm clock), check out the project guide to get started.

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Read the full article on MAKE

Read the full article on MAKE

Read the full article on MAKE

If you were lucky enough to score passes to this year’s Burning Man, be sure to keep a look out for [Laurence Symonds] and crew, who are putting together an ambitious fixture for the event. In reality, we’re guessing you won’t have to look far to find their giant moon replica floating overhead – in fact it will probably be pretty hard to miss.

They are calling the sculpture “Lune and Tide”, which of an 8 meter wide internally lit moon which hovers over a spinning platform that’s just as big across. The inflatable sphere is made up of giant ripstop nylon panels which are home to 36,000-odd sewn-in LEDs. The LEDs illuminate the sphere to reflect the natural color of the moon, though with a simple command, [Laurence] and Co. can alter the lighting to their heart’s content.

If Hack a Day’s [Jesse Congdon] makes his way out to the festival again this year, we’ll be sure he gets some footage of Lune and Tide in action. For now, you’ll have to satisfy your curiosity by checking out the project’s build log.

The friend of a performer created this optical light display of 256 LEDs that can be programmed to create some fascinating displays.  The ball has 16 panels, which are not only the circuit boards, but the structural support of the ball as well. The central brain is provided by an Arduino powered by two AA batteries.  For more information, see the full project details (the site may be temporarily down).

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