Engineering (LED CUBE) (Amanda Blas | THE BEACON)
By Nikki Robles, Staff Writer -- robles15@up.edu
Senior electrical engineering majors Jess Tate, Patrick Bloem, Caleb Pentecost and Devin Pentecost will light up Founders Day this Tuesday with Project LED Cube, an 8-inch by 8-inch by 8-inch glass cube that contains 512 LED lights.
"It's an interactive 3-D display," Caleb said. "It senses gravity and moves with motion."
When the cube is moved, the LEDs light up when shifted toward a particular direction, making it seem as if the lights were moving in the same direction.
The Team, Team Stolen Pie, started constructing "Project LED Cube" last summer and spent 600 hours building it.
"One of the main parts of the project was we designed our own integrated circuits," Tate said.
What makes the cube stand out is that the LED lights are sensitive to gravity and cascade down with movement, creating a water-like effect.
"They do sell display animation (LEDs), but the added functionality that we put into it is the novelty that other companies don't have," Devin said.
In addition to having LED lights that are sensitive to gravity, Project LED Cube has another function.
"It also has a secondary mode when you're not moving it," Tate said. "It plays animations."
The team believes their senior project incorporates what they have learned throughout their years in the engineering program.
"It takes all the digital aspects our education and implements them into one project," Caleb said.
Team Stolen Pie will host a 15-minute presentation and visualization of Project LED Cube in Shiley 319 at 3:15 p.m. on Founders Day, April 17.
