| This is our dining table. We built it because we needed a new dining table, and I guess we're just that kind of people. It has a frosted glass top lit by 448 multicolored LEDs that respond, in a complex and gentle fashion, to input generated by motion above the table while we eat.
We showed it off at the Maker Faire. Click on the photo to get to see some other photos of the table construction. Lenore was interviewed about the table at the faire, see Lenore's CNET interview. |
| The LEDs are controlled by a 16-node 1-D analog computer network. Each node has an amplified photodiode that senses changes in ambient light above its region of the table. An analog integrator (memory) averages that signal along with input from its neighbors, and the resulting signal is used to drive one of two strands of 14 LEDs (depending on polarity) with intensity that depends on the integrated value. Each node consists of one photodiode, one quad op-amp IC, nine resistors, and four capacitors that we hand-soldered onto a tiny piece of plain perfboard. We mounted the nodes to sheets of masonite pegboard, such that the output LEDs fit through the holes. After (a dozen or so evenings of) soldering, the pegboard with its electronics and a power supply was set into a stained-wood table frame that we made out of birch and poplar, and topped with glass recycled from a desk top.
Watch a short low-res video: Interactive LED Dining Table movie (3 MB quicktime .mov). Read the LED Dining table PDF Picture book, showing the construction of the table. (5.5 MB PDF file) We're not selling this design; we're giving it away as a free design. If you do want to buy an LED table, please consider checking out the Coffee Tables.
A bunch of blogs picked this up. Amongst others, our table has been featured on: |
 | Bonus picture: Lenore hangs out with the table during the makerfaire. |
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/LedDiningTableStory