Bioluminescence Wall
An energy efficient LED “Bioluminescence Wall” that delivers an abstracted twilight experience. The programming mimics the ethereal discharge of light by displaced dinoflagellates. Users are encouraged to “glide” their hands across the glass, resulting in trails of simulated bioluminescent glow. This is a common experience for people who dive in areas/times devoid of light.
Several design considerations had to be considered to preserve signal integrity on these large, two layer Printed Circuit Boards--especially when each proximity zone is essentially an RF burst antenna, and each LED susceptible to EMI. Optimal trace length, spacing, antenna size, power and data line placement were critical factors to success. 25 PCBs were used to cover the 9′x6′ steel framed glass wall.
Each LED has its own proximity zone, which senses through 1/2″ of tempered glass. Proximity data is handled via multiple shift registers and piped into an 80mhz Microcontroller (one per board). The MCU then correlates the zone data to LED state. LED output communication is done via the same MCU through Pulse Width Modulation and shifted through the LEDs. There are 140 8-bit LEDs per board, for a total of 3,500 RGB LEDs. A single board pushes around 1 Megabyte Per Second of Data. The wall moves about 25 MBPS of data. Response time is around 800hz, but only if the hand makes firm contact with the glass. In a way, the wall live records user movement and plays it back; one gets to watch what his/her movements replay. The only limit to the number of users is how many people can touch the glass.
According to researchers and divers, simply having an led flicker would be incorrect. The LEDs were required to pulse, pop and fade in a variety of ways. There are over 50 different ways in which it the LEDs can trigger and persist. There’s just enough time to say, make a large symbol like a heart, but not enough to write a name.
The interactive “sleeps” at night via automation and wakes in the morning. Due to changes in the environment (stray RF, temperature) the interactive calibrates itself throughout the day.
Accompanying the interactive is an explanatory video, further explaining what Bioluminescence is.
The electronic aspects of this exhibit were a pleasure to work on, but of course, that’s only one part of the interactive. Many people worked together to craft the experience.
Mounting boards to panel:
Troubleshooting:
Kinda hard to document this in the low light conditions of the exhibit :)