Friday, January 25, 2019
Samy Kamkar’s LED Balloon Network
Hackaday: Writing this in the frigid darkness of a Northern Hemisphere January evening, I have to admit to more than a little envy of Samy Kamkar and his friends. One of their summer events is a private party at a secluded campground somewhere that looks quite warm, which from here seems mighty attractive.
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I always enjoy seeing cool projects like this one. Beyond the artistic value of the floating LED balloons, I can actually see some interesting architectural implications for this project. Phone LEDs are often used as indicators for notifications. Many electronics also have these small lights for indication purposes. Why not bring that concept to the larger built environment? One could use floating balloon -esque installations in a structure or complex to broadcast simple notifications, as well as provide general illumination. I love that the author of the article goes fairly in depth about the construction of the device and the software behind it, giving technically- inclined folks enough foundation (presumably) to replicate this project for themselves. What I find even more interesting than the concept, though, is the amount of engineering necessary to make this work. This isn't a simple project by any means. A cheap balloon filled with only a few grams of helium needed to provide lift to the LEDs, controller, and battery. While he moved the power supply to the ground, I don't see why the same was not done for the control system. Make the base a tether for the balloon, and lighten the load to provide better lift (or room for more LEDs).
I am finding one aspect of reading articles on the Greenpage particularly beautiful and frustrating: I keep reading about things that would have solved past production problems for me. This piece of technology, particularly the details of changing the way the control system works, reminds me of a particular dance piece with many unreliable technical elements. The specific item I am thinking of was a remote-controlled flicker candle that, due to the constraints of the candle we had available, had to be operated by a dancer on stage. On a basic level, if we had the ability to change the control system like Kamkar did in this project, extending the range to thirty feet, we would have gotten far fewer notes about it. Pushing the idea a bit, it would be very helpful to develop an operator-friendly control system for microprocessors that could be adapted for various implementations, such as receiving feedback from sensors, actuating lights and motors, etc.
Pssssh. I just watched Dance Light, and Jacob Wesson’s orb was only one step away from this. Add a little helium and violá!
In all seriousness, though, this is really cool— making electronics lighter than air is no easy task. I almost wonder if with all the effort and expense of developing these it might have been cheaper and easier to go with drones, similar to the PyeongChang Olympics opening ceremony: The technology and software already exists somewhere. Then again, if Intel or someone else hasn’t published the software that could be a large task to recreate: you would have the drone navigation to deal with in addition to the lighting effects. And drones aren’t quiet either.
I wonder if these might have an application in the entertainment industry… maybe in very specific scenarios, but it seems like outside of a pretty visual effect on occasion, im not sure they fill a practical purpose that isn’t already better addressed. The attitude used to make them, on the other hand, with a driven determination and an iterative process, is something that isn’t utilized in theatre as much as it might be.
This is a really beautiful project. On first look it really reminded me of the orbs created and used by Jacob Wesson in this past Dance/Light production. It is wildly impressive to me that he found a way to make these balloons, filled with all of the necessary equipment, light enough to float. I appreciate the many different materials and methods he tried to achieve exactly what he was looking for. The technical aspects are quite fascinating to me. I am interested in how people weigh benefits of different technologies. In his project he wanted the cheaper option, he didn’t need an in-balloon controller, and it obviously had to be wireless. I also was interested in the experimentation he did with the varying gases to find what would lift the material and be less expensive. I appreciate how Kamkar goes into such depth about his problem solving and iteration process.
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