Smoke Ring Text Generator Scrolls Vertical Marquees

Arduino Computers & Mobile Craft & Design
Smoke Ring Text Generator Scrolls Vertical Marquees

YouTube player

Well, sort of. In practice, the rings persist just long enough to make out a single letter. But you get the idea.

Chicagoan Mitchell F. Chan’s THE INGENIOUS GENTLEMAN DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA is slowly evaporating the text of Cervantes’ famous novel into the air, one letter at a time. Mitch writes:

The clouds (actually vortex rings) are generated by ultrasonic and subsonic sounds. The canisters that shoot the clouds into the air are sequenced through an Arduino reading a .txt file of the whole book on MicroSD. With each letter, the clouds are emitted in a sequence similar to a row of LEDs on a ticker-tape display, so the letters are scrolling upwards, and each puff can be considered like a row of pixels.

[Thanks, Mitch!]

What will the next generation of Make: look like? We’re inviting you to shape the future by investing in Make:. By becoming an investor, you help decide what’s next. The future of Make: is in your hands. Learn More.

Tagged

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

View more articles by Sean Michael Ragan
Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!

ADVERTISEMENT

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 16th iteration!

Prices Increase in....

Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
FEEDBACK