SpokePOV -- yes!

SpokePOV test run. April 3, 2006.

The Spoke POV is a toy that uses persistance of vision to display an image inside a rotating bicycle wheel. The basic contraption is a row of thirty LED's, each controlled by a microprocessor. A hall effect sensor and a magnet give a signal that allows the microprocessor to calculate the wheel velocity and calculate which LED's to illuminate at any given time, producing a phantom image (here, a biohazard symbol). I ordered a kit for this thing from the lovely and ingenious LadyAda at MIT. After a couple hours in the secret underground electronics laboratory here under the U of R, voila!, it's alive!

That's vyncentvega's bicycle, and thanks to lert for (unknowingly!) loaning the batteries. Click on the picture for a few more.