Crayolascope

Using 12 toys from Crayola called “Glow Books”, I hacked together a charming prototype of what a ~1ft deep 3D display might look like. This would be a similar concept to animating some of those famous depth paintings on dozens of panes of lit glass.

For the animation in the video, I traced a cube I had digitally animated and printed out, frame by frame. I would love to hand it off to other animators and artists to see if they can make anything interesting with it.

The whole thing is driven by an Arduino Mega, and users can use the buttons on the front to control the speed, scrub position/frame, and enable a fading effect between panels.

The Crayolascope has been exhibited at the NY Hall of Science in Queens, NY as part of their series that teaches kids about different aspects of animation. It has also been shown at Launchpad in Brooklyn, NY as part of the Slap Dash art series.

For the next version, I’d like to play with more powerful lighting and more full edge lighting, as well as solve the issue of internal reflectivity between panels degrading the quality of the “image”. Once the animation goes in about 14-18 frames, it becomes very difficult to see from one side unless it is in a very dark space. I would love to get it much deeper than that, or at least make a finer Z-space resolution.

Press:
Engadget – http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/25/crayolascope-hacks-toys-into-foot-thick-3d-display/
Hack-a-day – http://hackaday.com/2012/06/24/crayolascope-turns-flat-displays-into-volumetric-coolness/
Makezine Blog – http://blog.makezine.com/2012/06/25/crayolascope-an-analog-depth-display/