I purchased an Arduino Uno kit a couple of years ago, but never found time to thinker with it. So, for my first monthly creation, I am gonna bring it out of storage, and create an EQ Visualizer with LEDs that reacts to Audio (or at least a fake signal, if getting a microphone hooked becomes a hassle). In case you aren’t familiar with what an EQ Visualizer is… here is a basic example of one.

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Each vertical bar above depicts the intensity of audio signal in a specific frequency band. And here’s one that’s built with LEDs, and probably made by its creator utilizing an Arduino chipset as well.

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This is pretty much what I intend to build, except for one small change. What’s the point in doing a basic FFT on an Audio Signal, and displaying it on a basic 8x8 or 24x24 or 8x30 LED Matrix? It’s been done millions of times before. Where’s the fun in that? In my project, there isn’t gonna be a simple LED matrix to display the output. Instead, in its place, I’m gonna use an even simpler display device… A one-dimensional LED strip!!!

But wait! How am I gonna display a histogram/bar chart with just a uni-dimensional LED strip? Am I glad I asked myself that question for you (#dealwithit)…

Let me introduce y’allz to some infinite goodness!

To ∞ and Beyond!

If you guys haven’t heard of infinity mirrors yet, let me give you a brief introduction. Someone high on life once came up with the idea of sticking a strip of lights around the edges of a mirror, and slapping another one-sided mirror on top of it to create an illusion of an infinitely long illuminated hole to a whole another dark dimension. (Someone else might be high on solder smoke here) You may have seen one of these on display at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum. But if you haven’t, here’s an example:

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For my project, I am gonna improve upon that basic idea of two parallel mirrors reflecting light back and forth. To create my EQ Visualizer, I’m gonna create an Infinity Mirror, and instead of all the streaks of light decaying by the same amount, I am gonna control how deep each light streak extends into that void by adjusting the brightness of each LED on the strip. Technically, they will all extend forever into the depths of that void, but you’ll be able to perceive different depths based on how quickly certain bars’ die out.

So, there you go! That’s my brief explanation of what my first 12in12 project is all about. I’ll post more updates as the project progresses.


PS. This has also given me an idea for a larger art installation recreating the Aurora Borealis, that I would love to build and hopefully display at Burning Man either this year or the next. Ping me if you are interested in working on it together.