For Project 3 I decided to work alone. I had felt that I wasn't able to delve into creative ideas when working in a group, and that I was far enough in the class to attempt a solo project.
I really enjoyed playing with color subtraction: that removing red, green or blue from white light would make red, green or blue objects disappear respectively. Here is a video that demonstrates the concept well:
Video from the Connecticut Science Center demonstrating the effect of color subtraction. Red, green and blue light are removed in a dark space, which subsequently makes red, green and blue LEGO bricks appear to be black.
I additionally thought that there was a way to create motion by oscillating between the three colors turning on and off. I wasn't completely sure of the narrative at this point, but had brainstormed a few ideas which involved three stages of progress (plant growing, a person aging, or a person transitioning from one state to another). I thought that at first, though, it would be best to play around with the light effect.
I started by wiring up a breadboard with a red, blue and green LED and a potentiometer for each one. The code mapped the brightness level with the potentiometer, so that each LED could go from turned completely off to turned on to its highest brightness.
I hooked up a red, green and blue LED to a breadboard, each with potentiometer controlling its brightness.
I put this setup inside a box along with some colored LEGOs. However, it wasn't possible to see the object inside my box through a peephole.
I decided to add a camera where the peephole was, though this time on a cardboard box. Still, I wasn't able to see the object inside the box.
I decided to add more LEDs, thinking that adding brightness might help make the object visible. Still, I wasn't able to see very well. Also, at no point were the LEDs making a white light together.
I decided to order a NeoPixel from Adafruit, thinking that I needed a strong white light from which I could digitally subtract red, blue and green. However, I still wanted to have something to display for the playtest.
I decided that for the playtest, what I would show would be just the white light and color subtraction. I would try again with the LEDs, but decided that I would only point them into an open box, not fiddle around with a closed one. I would also play with angling of the LEDs to try to achieve a white light. From there I would place red, blue and green colored LEGOs to demonstrate the effect which I was trying to achieve, like this:
Video of strong beams of red, blue and green light in rods shining onto a wall. When the three colors intersect, they create a white light.
Directing the light with little Dixie cups inside of the box, and in a darker room, was much more effective. The beam was much more visible as a distinct red, green or blue beam. This gave me hope that with a brighter light I could achieve a desired effect. I had the idea that I wanted to play with the color of the background to achieve maximal disappearance of the object, so a red background for the red subtraction on a red object, a green background for the green subtraction on green object, and blue background on blue subtraction on a blue object. In order to achieve this, I would eventually experiment with creating three sections in the box, one with each of the three colors of backgrounds and intended color disappearance (red, green or blue).
However for now, I started to come up against remaining time in the evening. I decided that for the playtest, I would stop at the following construction: