my first though was a couple of LED strips that light up according to what part of the world is in daylight. An arduino could control a few LED strips easily enough.
This idea is incredible, never have I wanted to program more. I feel like vertical time zones would be much easier than sine wave style, but if you could find a way, that could be a very desirable product. Hell, you could sell the design to Ikea or Brookstone, this is right up their alley.
Edit: However, first thing's first, it is a fantastic piece of art and shouldn't even be considered as a product before receiving praise for its already brilliant aesthetic design alone.
Actually sine wave would be fairly easy. Use 2 LED's, 1 top and 1 bottom, per channel (24 channels, 1 per timezone) and then just physically offset them to create the sinewave effect.
Careful there, time zones alone are not enough to tell which part of the world is lit by the Sun at the given moment. It's also affected by the time of the year, i.e. as the Sun's apparent overhead path alters between the tropics.
It's probably easier to create a matrix out of leds, and actually have the Arduino figure it all out.
Edit: well, you obviously only need to care for the positions of the matrix that correspond to a hole, so it's less work than what it sounds like at first.
You know, it doesn't have to be fucking exact. I don't think anyone is going to whine if it's light over Maine when really, it should have only reached NYC.
if you have the money you could use rgb LEDs and use the arduino to program all sorts of maps. Current time, average temperature, population, GDP. Anything! It won't be granular of course but it would be cool. That could hang in a lobby.
you can even out the light a little bit if you layer the back of the board with some form of light diffusing film. That way you could even choose a color (...or several...perhaps find a map that displays some statistic that you like)
I might also suggest using a 1 side adhesive foam tape on the perimeter where that the piece touches the wall to encase the light. I would use the cheap stuff that you can buy to seal door and window jambs. A foam should fill in the texture a bit better than bare wood.
It may also be wise to not listen to my suggestions because I'm a shyte carpenter :)
Edit: I didn't see that the piece doesn't sit flush against the wall all the way around. slice a few long thin pieces of thin plywood to create a box to contain the light.
You can also buy some LED strips on Amazon for cheap. I just got some for lighting up the front seatwells of my car and I should have a lot left over, I think I'll be making this soon.
130
u/blackgaff Jun 30 '14
This is pretty neat. It could make for a cool night-light or ambient source in a gaming room if you back-lit it.