Introduction to my Final project
As a final project I thought of a fun product, that is a combination of juggling, physics and electronics. I would like to make a Flower Stick that while it you rotate it in the air you create light animations, using LEDs and the optical effect called Persistence of Vision (POV).
What is a flower stick?
This term is used to describe a straight center stick with any weights and it is a form of gyroscopic juggling, or equilibristics and is generally considered to be one of the 'circus arts'. I'm used to made flower stick by myself, indeed this is the last one I realized:
and here I am, at work:
What is the Persistence of Vision?
Persistence of vision is the optical phenomenon where the illusion of motion is created because the brain interprets multiple still images as one. When multiple images appear in fast enough succession, the brain blends them into a single, persistent, moving image. The human eye and brain can only process about 12 separate images per second, retaining an image for 1/16 of a second. If a subsequent image is replaced during this time frame, an illusion of continuity is created.
There are several projects on the internet that use this phenomenon, one in particular:
Inspiration
The inspiration to combine the flower stick with the light effects to create designs details came from this Website, where the same result is obtained using another type of juggling:
I have not yet fully dived in and find out how they managed to make it, but the effect seems truly remarkable.
