Hey guys, Im working on an art project that will use a disassembled lcd monitor. I have removed the ccfl's and related Fresnel lenses, diffusers, etc. I am creating a new, deep, light source for the panel, but what I need help with is the computer part. I want to alternate between a video and a pure white screen with the idea that when the video is playing the monitor will look relatively normal, while when the screen is white, the panel is nearly transparent. The idea works out fine with me manually flipping between the two, but ideally I would want it to rely on a proximity sensor such that when someone leans in to examine the "art" it would swap on them... kind of a bait and switch technique. The panel has vga and dvi ports and i've got a laptop I can dedicate to this and/or an arduino I have access to... any ideas?
Our local Target store has dolls and toys that do that when you walk by. They start moving and making noises. I'll check next time I go there to see what they use.l
John: They're not dolls, they're members of staff! The clue is when they start saying things like "Can I help you?" I would use a PIR attached to an Arduino, which in turn is connected to the laptop. The PIR triggers an input on the Arduino which sends a signal to the laptop, which does its thing. An alternative would be an IR LED/sensor combo that trips when the IR beam is broken which triggers the Arduino which triggers the laptop.
Any idea what software I would need on the pc? I cant imagine that programming the arduino will give me any problems, but the computer side I dont know how it will interact with the arduino...
Since the Arduino USB connection acts like a serial port (I think), you'd just need a simple program to monitor the serial port and take the necessary action. Any number of programming languages could handle this easily.
you could use a webcam and some software that when motion is detected it executes the command to play the video or whatever. i saw some program called zone trigger that does this.
Thanks for all the responses! I was thinking about another idea, and I was wondering if there is any way to use a webcam (or other cheap camera) and use whatever video signal the camera is sending straight to the monitor... as in connect the camera's pinouts to some of the vga or dvi pins, but im not sure if they would be compatible signals..
