Vibe Mirror

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We love a good art-related project here at Hackaday, and [Wolfgang’s] vibrating mirror prototype is worth a look: into its distorting, reflective surface, of course.

[Wolfgang] began by laser cutting nine 1″ circles from an 8″ square mirror, then super glued a 1/4″ neoprene sheet to the back of the square, covering the holes. Each circular cutout received some custom acrylic backings, glued in place with a short piece of piano wire sticking out of the center. The resulting assemblage pushes through the neoprene backing like a giant thumbtack, thus holding all nine circular mirrors in place without restricting movement. The back end of the piano wire connects to yet another piece of acrylic, which is glued to a tiny vibrating motor.

He uses some shift registers and an Arduino Uno to control the motors, and although there’s no source code to glance it, we’re guessing [Wolfgang] simply designed the nine mirrors to buzz about in different patterns and create visually interesting compositions. Check out a quick video of the final effect after the break, and if you can help [Wolfgang] out with a name for his device, hit us up with your suggestions in the comments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nV2EaPxYCI

29 thoughts on “Vibe Mirror

  1. I guess it’s interesting for like, 10 seconds, aside from that i don’t know, not enough BS involved to be some “Arty” thing, not practical, it’s just a thing.

    Didn’t know you could laser cut mirrors though, that’s neat

    1. It’s mirrored acrylic, so you probably just cut it shiny side down.

      I’d like to see this reflecting light onto a wall, it might make for a neat display.

      As it is now, the interesting part is the vibration making the reflection blurry. Making the whole mirror vibrate would probably be just as entertaining. Especially if you can do face detection and blur the mirror when people try to look at themselves in it.

      1. A sheet of aluminized mylar in an airtight frame of arbitrary size and the transducer of your choice. :-)

        Or when this thing is lying on its back as at ~0:42, pour a big glop of that cornstarch goo on top of it. ;-D

      1. Its a start to finish… its not a hack. It doesnt follow what I and MOST would call a HACK… There is no mistakes, there isnt anything fixed or altered… its a project… I never said it sucked though but doesnt fit HAD in my opinion and if you dont like my Opinion thats fine… i dont care. Just posting what i feel.

  2. How about a “Nona”?

    It needs a self-serving artist’s statement:

    “My work explores the relationship between the tyranny of ageing and urban spaces.

    With influences as diverse as Derrida and Frida Kahlo, new tensions are synthesised from both simple and complex structures.

    Ever since I was a student I have been fascinated by the endless oscillation of the moment. What starts out as vision soon becomes corrupted into a hegemony of power, leaving only a sense of chaos and the possibility of a new order.

    As momentary derivatives become reconfigured through diligent and personal practice, the viewer is left with a hymn to the outposts of our culture.”

    (Generated by http://www.artybollocks.com/ )

  3. Might be useful to put the little circles round the edge, have them as transducers for some sort of computerised mirror, they can vibrate in different ways for feedback, possibly as well as a LCD screen behind a half-mirror. The LCD / half-mirror part has been explored before as part of “house of the future” type stuff.

    As it is, not sure what the purpose is. If it’s art, I know it’s traditional to leave it unexplained, “it means what you think it means”, but that’s so often a copout for “I have no idea, they left me in a room with glue and scissors for too long”.

  4. It would be interesting to see this larger and hooked up to a kinect to sense people walking by and blur them out of the reflection, while leaving the reset of the reflection unblurred.

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