The Big Picture
"Amidst the ups and downs of the everyday grind, we need to step back to appreciate the big picture we've painted in life."
A new-media art piece, exhibited at Stanford Reframe 2021: "Unraveled"
Build Time: 1 week; Budget: $100
The Tech Inside
The device is essentially a laser beam steering system that can project a laser point on a Cartesian plane. Here’s a video:
The beam originates from a laser pointer and bounces off two mirrors that are rotated independently using stepper motors. These mirrors steer the beam in the X and Y directions.
All the parts are off-the-shelf, easy to build, and inexpensive. The mirror mounts are 3D printed. The motors are generic Nema 17 0.4A steppers. The enclosure is made using laser-cut acrylic sheets. The system is controlled using an Arduino microcontroller and a generic stepper driver. The entire setup costs less than $100 to build, which is exponentially cheaper than an off-the-shelf galvo-laser scanner that can cost in the thousands.
Mirrors on Nema 17 Motors
3D printed Mirror Mounts
How It Works
The mirrors are positioned orthogonally to each other: their axes are perpendicular but do not intersect, allowing the mirrors to rotate without colliding.
Each of the two steppers controls the movement of the beam on one axis, and the movement of one mirror does not affect the other axis.
The system calculates the desired position of the beam on the Cartesian plane (X-displacement) and (Y-displacement) and rotates the stepper motors accordingly.
Front view of the plane being projected on
Side view of the plane being projected on
The Art
Because the laser beam slowly traces a pattern, it can only be captured through long-exposure photography. This technique is the central idea behind the philosophy of this art piece.
Future Prospects
How about Laser-Graffiti on buildings? All I need to do get this done is:
Couple this system with a phone camera app, that can send instructions and recieve data from the onboard microcontroller.
In front of the desired monument, map the plane on which the laser is being projected, with a pre-calibration run.
Take a long exposure picture, send it to the operator, and let them overlay/draw their desired graffiti art on it.
Drive the system to draw the graffiti art, as the operator takes a long-exposure picture of the artwork.
Here are some AI-generated images of how it might look like:
