[1g0rb]

Really great writeup and results! I did something similar but much simpler few years ago (https://hyperglitch.com/articles/lightstick) but instead of long exposure (as I didn't have the good camera) I recorded the video with webcam and reconstructed the final image from it so I didn't have to shoot in the dark. The octave script for image reconstruction is very basic (and the results are very lo-fi :)) but maybe you can use the same approach and with some more work make more usable results (or phone app :))

[StavrosK]

Oh wow, I guess I'm not as original as I thought :P That looks great, and you can get lots of long exposure apps for your phone so you don't have to use a script to reconstruct the image, have you tried those?

[1g0rb]

Didn't really thought of that :). But this was in 2015 and basically just a very lo-fi weekend project without any care about resolution or color reproduction (I saw pixelstick project and just wanted to see if I can make something similar :)) after which I used the LED strip for something else.

[StavrosK]

Oh jeez, the Pixelstick existed back in 2015? Looks like I was quite late.

[dschiffner]

I think the Pixelstick originally debuted on Kickstarter in 2013 and then a more refined version came out in maybe 2016.

Kickstarter link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bitbangerlabs/pixelstic... Pixelstick website: http://www.thepixelstick.com/ They also now make the ColorSpike: https://colorspike.com/

Regardless, your DIY solution looks really cool and well done! Props!

[StavrosK]

Ah, I wasn't aware, thanks!

[glenneroo]

Even Picasso did (purportedly) the first light paintings (manually of course) back in 1949, and I've been doing manual painting with various flashlights, LED lights, fire, sparklers, etc. since at least 2005, during which time I've seen many projects. You might want to check Vimeo and Youtube, there are tons of old artworks using LED strips, etc. One of the first inventions I saw was the Light Graffiti videos from LichtFaktor (https://www.lichtfaktor.com)... although their earlier stuff was all done manually as well.

In the end though it doesn't matter that you aren't original, it matters that you did it and possibly added something new (spending time thinking about resolution, color quality, etc).

[StavrosK]

Oh, yes, light painting is probably as old as the camera, but I think "painting" photorealistic images with a strip is different enough to count as an original idea.

I'm not very fussed about being the first anyway, it was just fun to think that I created something nobody else had before. Fun while it lasted, anyway :P

[faceplanted]

This has actually been being done for a decade at least, you can find instructions online for it, I had the same experience with just about every idea I had when I first joined my university maker space, not only had all my idea been done, half of them had been done specifically _by that makerspace_ just when they were picking fun projects to do off the internet.

The point is to make stuff and enjoy it, you're still an inventor. And the things you _do_ with your projects are half the fun, your photos are really fun and I wouldn't have thought of a lot of them.

[1g0rb]

But I'm really glad you didn't know about it and made yours :) since you really put a lot of thought into the details about color reproduction, resolution and diffusion. It's a very fun thing to play with and anyone wanting to build something similar will now be able to find great resource of info and implementation details on your site.

[StavrosK]

Thanks, I'm really glad I did it too. It was lots of fun and very rewarding to see it improve iteration by iteration.