Wife's 50th Birthday Present

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EasyreadDavid

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I am hoping to link up with someone who can help me with a critical task in my life: my wife's 50th birthday.

It is a moment of stress on any calendar, but clearly we are on new levels of concern this year. The deadline is the 18th March.

I know nothing about electronics and cannot be found making something in the house, without questions being asked. So I am hoping that I can work with someone to part-assemble the core of my idea.

PROJECT:

I want to create a chandelier made of LED lights dangling in a seemingly random (and attractive!) manner from a top fitting. I am thinking of a cluster of around 256 lights, hanging in a 3-dimensional array.

These dangling LEDs will be connected into a matrix, that can play video. So then, when viewed from the right direction, the video can be seen playing in the chandelier. Clearly it will be just a random pattern from any other direction, due to the parallax effect.

I am planning to use just white LEDs and so will record some video against a white background, with content that is in some way recognisable, even in low resolution. Stuff like her children walking, dancing and waving in dark clothing.

WHAT I NEED:

So, I guess what I need is the matrix set up with a microprocessor, that I can load a video into, in some fairly easy way (USB stick?).

Since it will be part of the house interior, I will need to be able to switch the display on and off fairly easily, even if the processor is left running.

I will also need a source of LEDs on long wires, that I can plug into the matrix. I will need to find LEDs with some sort of diffuser bulb around them, is my guess.

I can then create the ceiling fitting and hopefully dangle the lights in an artful way, that also works for the video.

CAN YOU HELP?

If anyone knows how to create this and is happy to assist a fumbling mechanical engineer through the process, I would love to hear from you.

And, of course, if anyone has concerns about the practicalities of it all, I am all ears.

I am in Oxford, England, but I don't see that location really matters for this.

Thanks!

Best wishes David
 
I am assuming what you want is somewhat similar in concept to an LED cube. Google it (youtube) and see if that somewhat resembles your general idea.
Last but not least, playing video in a LED cube is a more advanced project and takes some time unless you are able to find something canned!

I like the idea, but March is a rather aggressive timeline ;-)
 
I hope you're giving her a fancy trip to France or some such. Else the fancy light will be moot! ;)
 
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