Last year Tim, Mike and I built some big LED panels for Tim’s band Microfiche. Tim is a graphic/industrial designer, Mike is an electrical engineer, and I’m a programmer, and the project was a great way for us to bring all of our skills together to create something cool. Here’s some pictures of us (and some dear friends) during the build phase:



And in this video you can see one of the panels during a show:

While we were working on the project we started to call ourselves Tricerabot, and the name stuck. This year we aim to have a Tricerabot booth at Maker Faire. Mike will have some new versions of his shifters with microcontrolled LEDs putting on light shows. Tim will have some of his new illustrations and designs (he does the Tricks of the Trade comic strip which appears monthly in Make Magazine). I might have some new interactive goodies (maybe some games or something).

And we’re working on a collaborative project to highlight the way our strengths complement each other. One plan is to use some wireless microcontroller boards to set up a proximity detection system. The system will be able to detect how far we are from the booth, and this information will be used to control a projected image. We talked about the image representing each of us as a different colored square that moves along an path, with the paths intersecting in the the middle. As the squares get closer and overlap, new images will emerge. Here’s a mock up of what we’re talking about:

See you in San Mateo!