24x16 RGB LED Display - Virtual Eye Menu Interface

It's been quite some time since my last video. I hope the work shows.

I'll explain how this is filmed (the crummy quality for one) once I explain the hardware. I realised that I wasn't going to be able to see through the LED's mounted in the helmet, so I came up with the idea of using a small CMOS camera and a pair of (myvu) video goggles to give me some of my vision back. But in my infinite ability to one-up myself during this project, I decided that if I had the goggles, I might as well put an On Screen Display (OSD) into the mix.

The new hardware consists of another arduino that is connected to an array of buttons (seen in the video) and a MAX OSD chip from sparkfun. The buttons are stand-ins for future glove mounted buttons/sensors that I will wear, and will give me a very unobtrusive interface I can manipulate (hopefully) without anyone noticing.

The video signal you're seeing is a little convoluted. The CMOS camera (pointed at the LED's and hardware) has it's video passed into the OSD, which adds the text overlay. The OSD output goes to my TV, which is then recorded by my point-and-shoot camera. Yes, there is a huge quality hit filming a TV with another camera, but the CMOS camera quality isn't that good to begin with. It's image is easily blown-out by the LED's and there isnt much color definition. Just enough to know something is red/green/blue/etc but barely.

The software/hardware/code setup is that the serial line from the virtual eye arduino is connected to the 'master' arduino that serves the code to the actual display. An interrupt on the master is trigger when the virutal eye registers a command from the menu and button interface. The OSD is commanded by SPI.

I do a run through of all the animations I currently have setup in the menu system. There are some new ones for those who've followed my other videos. I also show some of the 'settings' menu I have setup but that currently doesn't actually do anything. It's there for the eventual climate control hardware/software I plan to impliment.

The display has a few things on it. At the top is the current running image/animation/etc. The sides have the menu structure, corresponding the the appropriate button. Top left is an ammeter and watt meter, though they currently don't have the hardware they need to show real numbers. Top right is a battery bar (also no hardware) and runtime clock. Along the bottom are spots for temperature sensors and some 'lights' for the climate control mode and state stuff.

Enjoy!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• RGB
• LED
• rainbowduino
• arduino
• matrix
• cylon
• game of life
• Conway
• emoticons
• 8 bit
• OSD
• on screen display
• sparkfun

[xR2ROx]

Your genius is superfluous and plethoric.

[ThreeFN]

maybe. Mostly I'm just stubborn. VERY stubborn.  I hack away at the code until it works.

[akkazent]

awsome!