Midterm Project: Aurora Simulation

James Sears and I are working on a project that involves a street lamp globe, which will project a simulation of the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. We were first going to project some LED lights through a bottle of water, and using servo motors to control the bottle, the water would act as a lens projecting a fluid dynamic of light arrays. However, the reliability of the motors was a deterrent. We decided to use Plexiglas as a lens, and control the projection of the lights with etchings.


Midterm

In the first iteration of our midterm, James and I used a series of one-watt LED lights. We experimented with their intensities and created different patterns to simulate the Northern Lights.

Then we etched Plexiglas to control the combination and pattern of lights.

From our midterm critiques, there were suggestions that the cooler hues looked more realistic.

Our next step is to draw a circuit board and to etch a deck of Plexiglas.