Monday 18 March 2013

iLED is going live on Kickstarter ! ! !

Hi everyone,

This is the moment I've been waiting for for a month now. iLED got approval (a week later) and is now live on Kickstarter. To achieve my goal, I need all the help I can get so please help me achieve my goal by backing my project and/or spreading the word to everyone you know!

This is the link to my project:


To all the people willing to officially be involved in this project, please let me know and rewards will be offered :)

All I can do now is to ask you to help me achieve my goal and introduce this new product along with the technology is displaying.

Thank you all for your support!

Monday 11 March 2013

Just a matter of time

iLED - The Interactive LED Module

The project has been submitted on Kickstarter and is awaiting confirmation.

Unfortunately they don't say how long is it gonna take until they approve the project so the launching might have to be postponed. I will keep you updated on the progress and let you know as soon as I hear anything from Kickstarter.

Wish me luck and please help by spreading the word and sharing with your friends. Thank you.

Sunday 10 March 2013

iLED: Kickstarter Launch

Hi everyone,

apologies for the lack of information in the last few days. I've been very busy putting together the last details of the iLED project which is going live on Kickstarter in approximately 12 hours.

The project will have a funding goal of ₤25000, and 45 days to reach it, which will ensure I get to send it into production and offer it at a reasonable price. I will need all the support I can get for this project, so if anyone is interested in helping officially, leave a comment here or a message on Facebook. Rewards will be offered and also your name will be displayed as a partner in my project description and on this blog.

Of course, I cannot say how much it would help if everyone could just spread the word about iLED and share links of their social networks and help me achieve the funding goal.

It's very exciting to finally launch the project and I'm hoping for a good outcome.

I'll keep you posted on the progress the iLED is making.


Saturday 2 March 2013

UPDATE iLED (Photos!)

Hi

I've kept promising you'll see photos of the first prototypes and well... here they are. One prototype is done and I have a couple of pictures to go with it.

Stay tuned for other updates, possible videos of the prototype working. The kickstarter campaign will go live next Monday, on the 11th of March and I think I could use some help with that. If anyone's interested, let me know on a comment or on facebook.. I'll include rewards, just sayin' :)

Let me know what you think. 



Saturday 23 February 2013

Comparison


This video presents the existent technology on the market right now. Here you can see multiple panels of approximately 302x302mm each having only (!) 4 motion sensors which converts into a pixel density of about 0.18ppi. I guess that the 1.5ppi pixel density for the iLED doesn't sound so low now, does it?

Also, this panel has one MCU controlling on pixel of 150x150mm plus a sensor, whereas iLED has one MCU controlling 4 pixels of 15x15mm plus one sensor for EACH pixel, so 4 sensors.

The purpose of this video is to show the existent technology and to provide a comparison between the iLED and the existing technology. I will not disclose the price of the presented device (obviously you can look it up yourself), but I can assure you that the iLED will be at least 30-40% cheaper while packing more tech.

Thank you and wish you all a great weekend :)

UPDATE iLED: Technical Specifications



As promised a few days ago, here is a post detailing on the technical specifications of the new iLED.

As stated, the dimensions of the module are: 30x60x1.6 mm. It has a pixel density of approximately 1.5ppi which may sound very low compared with the high-end displays we have in our smartphones, but in comparison with the existent products from the same category it has the highest pixel density available on the market. This translates into pixels of 15x15 mm, each pixel containing 4 ultra-bright blue LEDs.

In terms of sensing the environment, each pixel contains an infra-red motion sensor comprising of an IR LED which is spectrally and mechanically matched with an IR Phototransistor. The phototransistor reacts to the reflected electromagnetic wave having a wavelength of 940 nm.

The signal from the receiving end of the sensor due to the reflected wave is then processed through an ultra-low power TI microcontroller, the MSP430G2xx series which, depending on how it was programmed it gives a response by lighting the corresponding pixel as desired by the user.

The microcontroller supports in-circuit programming through the 4 pins attached to each chip or it can be taken away from the circuit (as you will probably see in the prototypes) and can be programmed using the MSP430 LaunchPad or other MSP programmer from Texas Instruments.

The programming can be done either through the specific software offered for free by TI known as Code Composer Studio (CCS) or through a recently developed IDE, known as Energia, which is an Arduino-like environment packing the best of both worlds: the user-friendly language developed by Arduino along with the capability to program ultra-low power and cheap microcontrollers from the MSP430G2xx series.

The entire circuit is powered through 4 power lines (2 Vcc lines and 2 ground lines) and is regulated using 3 voltage regulators with a constant output of 3.3V and maximum current of 800mA each. The module can be powered using any regulated DC power supply or battery as long as the output voltage of the supply is between 5 and 12 volts and as long as it can provide around 250mA for each module used (in the case of putting more modules together to create a larger surface).

The beauty of this module stands in its versatility and simplicity. You can program it however you want, you have the serial interface which can be used either to communicate between the 2 MCUs on a module or to communicate with the "outside world". Easy to program and easy to interface, ilED can serve as a great learning tool for beginners or as a versatile development tool for the more advanced users.

If you have any questions related to the functionality of the ilED or you think there's something I should have mentioned, post them in the comments section of this post or on the Facebook page and I will respond as soon as possible.

Looking forward to the first batch of iLEDs to arrive in the next two weeks so I can show them to you and also launch the Kickstarter campaign. Until then, Like us on Facebook and share the information with your friends or anyone you think might be interested.

Tuesday 19 February 2013

iLED: Update

Hi there,

The first batch is still expected, so no photos yet unfortunately, but there will be a post soon containing more technical details about the module.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or opinions, technical or not, leave a comment or just post them to our Facebook page. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this one.

iLED Facebook Page

Sunday 17 February 2013

The all new Interactive LED Module (iLED)



What is The Interactive LED Module(iLED)?

First of all it’s an idea and secondly, it’s an improvement; and, not to forget, a soon to be Kickstarter project.
At the moment we are “restricted” to interact with surfaces through touch: touch screen, buttons, touch pads and all that. There are “touch-less” ways, of course, but they require expensive cameras and infra-red sensors along with high-end image-processing techniques.

I thought there had to be a better and simpler way.

I present to you, The (I)nteractive (LED) Module (iLED), the first well designed version of a new way. This panel uses extremely simple, partially analogue, technology to offer a new, fun and intriguing experience at an affordable price. Using simple, yet efficient, infra-red motion detection, it senses your presence and responds to it in a gentle yet playful way. This device packs what, in my opinion, every device or gadget’s basics should: it’s clean, simple yet complex in responding, customisable, modular, fun and, most of all, open-source. This means that you can either get a single module and just play around with it, program it and customise it or you can get more of them, put them together and create something unique like and interactive coffee table, or even something truly big like a fully interactive wall. Whether you’re a maker, and like to tinkle on everything, or just a tech enthusiast that wants a cool device to play with, this one is for you.

One small, 6x12 cm, module packs 32 ultrabright LEDs forming 8 responsive pixels, each being controlled by its own motion sensor thorough two ultra-low-power Texas Instruments microcontrollers which can, of course, communicate between them, if wanted, through the serial communication ports on each chip.

But why did I call it “an improvement”?

Because it is. It is not the first of its kind, but it’s the first to pack a decent resolution in terms of sensing the environment and performance at an affordable price. It is, in my opinion, the first step towards a new way of interacting with objects and surfaces that surround us daily. If this will get launched, it will provide me with the resources necessary to take this technology many steps further and hopefully end up with the interaction technology of tomorrow at everyone’s disposal.

Riddles, games, secured locks with puzzles or real-life and touch-less “slide to unlock”, you can have it; all in a new, fresh and slick look at an affordable price with almost endless possibilities.

The iLED has gone through the prototyping phase and is now awaiting manufacturing. Photos and videos of the product will be posted as soon as the first batch will come out the factory's door; this is expected to be somewhere around the 10th of March.

Hello

First of all, Hi.

My name is Gigi Dinut and I am an Electronic and Electrical Engineering student at University College London. I am interested in all that says electronics and especially consumer electronics with a great interest in electronics design.

I have started this blog as a way to show and promote my work to all people who might be interested in electronics and electronics design.

As a start I am going to present one of my latest projects, the iLED which is basically the purpose of this blog. Looking forward for any comments and hoping you'll like it.

Enjoy.