By Gavin Smith
More information on LightScythe
LightScythe on Geek.com
“The LightScythe is a device for writing text and images frozen in midair.
The hardware is pretty simple. There’s a 2m programmable LED strip inside an acrylic tube, which is controlled from a small receiver and battery pack. A laptop PC with a wireless Xbee link sends the image data to the scythe at a specified time.
The nice thing about the XBee is that it’s like a serial cable to the PC, but with no wires. I can send all the image data from the laptop to the scythe, and since it’s bidirectional I can also send the ‘start’ buttons back to the laptop to kick everything off.”