Sticky Light

light

With the availability of webcams and projectors, multitouch and interactive demos have become increasingly popular because they’re so easy. Students at the University of Tokyo took a new approach that uses lasers instead. They created Sticky Light, which uses mirrors, a laser, and a single photodetector. Unlike camera-tracking setups, this system requires no visual processing. The laser moves around and bumps into dark objects, sticking to them. It can follow drawings on the table or objects in space, such as shirt designs. They also created a few basic games and a demo that makes sounds based on the movement of the spots. Video of the project after the break.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9noMfsg486Y%5D

[via today and tomorrow]

25 thoughts on “Sticky Light

  1. isn’t this just what university research should *not* be like? it’s just results, results, i thought the important bit was how you got there.

    like this it’s a nice toy, but i wanna see how they did it.

  2. i just wanna know how to make this one.. can anyone help me..? please, i think i need to do this so i can present something new in our science investigatory projecf..

  3. alexander prillo, wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of a science investigatory project? If the answer was presented to you, you would have the answer… just break it into known components, worn on those and then piece it together. If it doesn’t work right at first, keep working at it and it will soon enough.

  4. Light spins in a circle around its current location.
    if part of the circle does not reflect back to the photodetector then the location is modified to moves away from the part of the circle where the light did not reflect.

  5. Thanks for that link Agent420, I saw this elsewhere already but with the same just-videos link which leaves people like us (hackaday visitors) frustrated.
    However when you see the setup they use an awful lot of ready-made parts. it’s more artistic than technical talent I guess.

    @anon then track the rims of craters on the moon?

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