09
Silent Roar: Screaming LEDs
About this project
The idea for the project was surrounded around creating a playful experience. It focuses on visually mimicking a scream using LEDs and a cartoonisish style. Based on the frustration exerted by the user the spiral would slowly light up till the user can exert no more pressure. Conceptually it is meant to symbolize banging a table in frustration.
A key inspiration for the concept was the idea of comic bubbles, creating a comical spin to the piece. In a way, making reality a comic.
The other source of inspiration with respect to the concept was “The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch”. The concept focused on creating wavy spirals that resonates with the principles behind the scream.
The idea of using the LEDs as a form of expression is also inspired by the old school arcade game of High striker, which uses lights to represent strength.
On the technical side, for the project an Arduino was used in combination with a DIY pressure sensor/FSR Sensor as a method of input and 4 strings of LEDs were used as an output. The main material used apart from this was Cardboard for construction.
Constructed out of cardboard, in combination with an Arduino as a controller the piece worked by pressing down on a pressure sensor/FSR Sensor. As the pressure increased a series of LED string lights would light up a spiral in progression gradually and finally strobe when maximum pressure is applied to the sensor.
Circuit Diagram
Each pair of marked LED Outputs is a series of string lights that are activated based on the pressure from the FSR Sensor. The FSR sensor used in the project is a DIY pressure sensor.