Fluorescein Matrix Interactive Display - Cesar Torres - Progress Report

Hey everybody,

Just posting a bit of the progress I've made with the Interactive Matrix Display. A large part of the project is waiting for materials, but the electronics behind it is relatively tame, so I have posted a couple of conceptual sketches.

I was able to acquire the fluorescein chemical from a river studies company. Apparently, the chemical is used to dye river systems and check for flow and contamination. This translates into a relatively small amount of dye (10 mL for every gal, roughly) and it produces an amazing effect. See video :)

So, after careful deliberation, I realized that the fluorescein has to admirable properties. It can fluoresce under the proper condition very large containers and it is able to create very intense and aesthetically pleasing flow patterns, however this is ephemeral. The circulation of water through either filtration or a pipeline to some water source would be outside the budget of the project. Hence, I have decided to use the apriori property: container lumination.

I have decided to use these PVC jars

that I found at a very reasonable price. They have the stability to endure holes and wires and such; plus the are relatively easy to transform into some other assembly than the one I have drafted further below. As the diagram says, I will be making about 64 modular lights from the water+fluorescein mixture and a UV Leds.

I plan to finish making the modular lights by the end of the month.

The more difficult part will be wiring the pieces to a MAX7219 chip, which I have done before, but on a smaller scale. Once this is wired, I need to code the serial input (translating what I want each light to display) and then make some UI so that I can easily change the image displayed.

I will be connecting proximity sensors and pressure pads to be the input mechanisms for the matrix display. To be decided still.