Homemade Bokode

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/6803291%5D

We’ve recently been getting a lot of new comments on our Bokode post from a while back, and with good reason.  [M@] has managed to find a way to replicate Bokode at home, using $0 worth of equipment (before the price of microprint). To accomplish Bokode at home, it seems all you need is and old webcam lens assembly and an LED.  Of course the his version is not as thin as a regular barcode so it probably wont be replacing anything in the near future, but the concept of from MIT to home within such a short period of time is amazing.

11 thoughts on “Homemade Bokode

  1. Using an ultrafast laser. Effective focal spot cross section is on the order of a few microns at 800 nm and a 40x aspheric objective. I’ll have to wait until our new equipment comes in (probably several months out)

  2. From TFA: “Essentially you need a decent digital camera to make it work.” This is because the effect doesn’t work with any but the largest camera aperture sizes. Doesn’t this limit the utility of the technology if it doesn’t work with cameraphones, webcams, or point+shoots?

  3. @concino
    I’ve been playing with a Processing library to try and pull data back out of the system. It shouldn’t be intensely difficult but I’m not the world’s foremost programming genius. I’m probably not even in the list of the top one million programming geniuses.

    How well the effect appears actually is a function of aperture size not really camera quality, though better usually means bigger. I got the effect pretty strongly with a little Cannon PowerShot.

    @TFerguson
    No question it limits the accessibility. Pretty much if the camera’s max aperture is under 25cm there’s not much happening. If the pattern size could be decreased substantially (like an order of magnitude) there’s a chance of getting some reading from a cameraphone, though the bokeh effect you’d get would be pretty narrow.

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