An ever-changing LED display makes for an interesting show. An LED table powered by tweets makes the light show that much more exciting. This Twitter-enabled device builds on a previous project which had uses 81 RGB LED modules in a 9×9 grid arranged atop an IKEA coffee table.
The “Live Twitter Table” extends the multi-colored LED display by adding a Bluetooth Arduino Shield which wirelessly connects to a nearby MacBook Pro. The table is controlled by tweets broadcast with the #ledtable hashtag and formatted with pixel coordinates for the LED matrix. A Twitter interface code parses the incoming Twitter posts and transmits it via Bluetooth to the Arduino microcontroller. A continuous stream of Tweets sets up the changing display on the LED table.
Macetech details the entire project from the stage of putting together an IKEA coffee table with LED grid including the source code. For your own LED project, you can try hooking up several wireless devices to a central computer and have them display your own LED designs.
Top LED Projects:
- Arduino Powered Pong on an LED Matrix
- Write in Midair with a Simple LED POV Display
- LED Light Box Thumps to Your Music
There is an ever increasing trend for events and weddings to take a more environmentally friendly approach to everything from the food to the decorations and the party favors. If you are not sure what you can do to make your wedding greener then read on to see how painlessly you can do your part to help save the planet. After all, a lot of little things make up one very big thing, in other words every little bit helps, even something as simple as buying LED Christmas lights instead of the regular wedding lights that use incandescent bulbs.
Invitations are the first on the list that should go. Why waste all that paper and the lives of so many trees when electronic delivery is so much quicker and cheaper? It’s definitely more reliable and you can also save a lot of time. Imagine filling hundreds of envelopes and writing out all those addresses. Now, all you have to do is select all the email addresses of your family and friends and then just hit “send”.
Next on your list should be the decorations. Take a close look at what you will be using. Make sure you have only LED Christmas lights versus incandescent because the former are a much greener option as they need a lot less power to run even though they are much brighter than regular lights. Also, try and use silk flowers instead of regular flowers, but if those are not an option then at least make sure the flowers are locally grown. This way you will be cutting down on the transport required to get them to your venue and help reduce the carbon footprint.
Another area that you can work on is the buffet or food, if you are having a sit down dinner. The first thing you should do is find a caterer that uses organic ingredients that are locally produced. However, this all depends on your budget because organic ingredients are often much more expensive. However, try to at least buy food that is local and try not to buy prepackaged goods, including washed lettuce and salad ingredients. The more packaging there is, the higher the number of processes that food has gone through and the higher its impact on the environment. Therefore, try going to a market rather than a supermarket. You might even pick up some vegetables you had never tried before.
Immortalizing the wedding is extremely important for the future, so you can look back and remember the amazing moments you shared. However, this doesn’t mean that you need disposable cameras at every table, because after all, few of the pictures every come out right. Instead, let the photographer do his job but make sure he only works on a digital platform which means less chemicals to hurt the environment and it also means no loss of quality for your photos.
There are many other things you can change to make your wedding more environmentally friendly, but remember that it is a lifestyle not just a moment’s trend. Just by purchasing LED Christmas lights instead of your regular incandescent version you will be doing a lot to help save the planet. Something as small as a set of LED Christmas lights can have an immense impact on the environment due to all the processes it must go through to go from raw materials to the LED Christmas lights you see in the store.
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