Fireflies come alive in this art installation controlled by Raspberry Pi

Making it’s debut in the Olympus Photography Playground in Vienna in February 2015, Neon Golden’s art installation “Swarm” mimics the behaviour of fireflies via LEDs which are strung from the ceiling at various different heights. Using both Raspberry Pi and Arduino control mechanisms, there are motion sensors which detect the movement of visitors and trigger lighting changes according to code which is based on the Boids algorithm by Craig Reynolds. It looks absolutely stunning and apparently really drew the crowds in at the OPP. You can see photographs of the build and the results on Neon Golden’s website. You can see more photographs on DeZeen.com.

Wine barrel becomes an arcade cabinet with a Raspberry Pi

Adelaide-based Matt Shaw wanted an arcade machine of his very own. His solution? Take an old wine barrel and adapt it for the purpose. He used a work-surplus monitor as a display and then cut a form-fitting fibreboard box to hold all the controls and the Pi. Surprisingly, he didn’t need to solder anything! He uses the PiPlay distro as the basis for the software. Read more about it here.

LEDs that move and mirror your hand movements with a Leap Motion and a Raspberry Pi

Over at PubNub, they’ve been using Java to do some great things. This time, they’re using it to interact with a Leap Motion. Movements in the user’s hands are replicated with servos. Attached to the servos are some 8×8 LED matrices. It’s all great, blinky fun that is, with the right equipment easily reproduce-able. Take a look here.

Pi Wars programme cover design competition

Logo v2 RGB sm

On the day of Pi Wars, we hand out programmes to every competitor and every spectator. These programmes contain details about the competition and also about our sponsors. Here is what the programme looked like last year:

Page 01 - front cover

This year, we are running a competition to design the front cover. The competition is open to anyone 18 years old and under. As well as your design, the cover will feature our Pi Wars logo banner and also the date (or at least the year) of the competition. We are not sure what the prize will be just yet but it will be Raspberry Pi-related and, of course, you get the satisfaction of seeing your design on the front of all the programmes! The competition will be judged by members of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Entries must be received by noon on 1st October (to give us time to judge the competition and to integrate the design into the programme before it is printed). More details, and information on how to send us your design is available on the website.

We hope we get some great entries!