Tag Archives: persistence of vision

This NERF Blaster Can Cast Floating “Holographic” Spells

Posted on by

Doctor Strange definitely needs this NERF blaster – a gun that generates animated spells out of thin air. This truly is wizardry. This cool hack comes from a Japanese cosplayer, and it is able to achieve the effect by using a spinning LED wand. So even though wizards don’t need guns, now wizard guns are a thing.

The seemingly floating images are created using an effect called persistence of vision. This basically means that the human eye holds onto images for a split second longer than light rays are actually hitting the retina. This is what allows us to interpret the images flashing across the pixels on a screen as moving video, instead of just a slideshow. It’s a really slick effect.

At the end of this customized NERF blaster is a 3D-printed adapter holding a Phantom 3D LED wand. As the wand spins, the LEDs along its length flash in specifically-timed patterns to fool the human eye into seeing 360-degree animations. Make sure you check out the end of the video, where the modder reveals some of the software they used to create the animated spells.

Sadly there’s no way to download those spells so you will have to consult a spellbook.

[via Hackaday via Gizmodo]

More Awesome Stuff for You to Click On:

Robotic LEGO Car-Building Factory Puts Minifigs out of Work
You Need These LEGO Accessories For Your Nintendo Switch
This Rubik’s Cube Has People’s Faces Instead of Colors
Modder Turns NERF Rival Blaster Into 2,000-Round Minigun
Johnny 5 LEGO Ideas Kit Needs Your Input

The Smart Rope Jump Rope Displays Jump Count in the Air

Posted on by

Do you like to jump rope as part of your exercise routine? Let me introduce you to Tangram Factory’s Smart Rope, a jump rope with 23 LEDs embedded in the middle of the rope that light up in front of you to display your current jump count while you’re jumping, courtesy of the old persistence of vision effect.

smart_rope_1zoom in


You can pair it with a smartphone if you want to keep track of calories burned and other stats. So what we have here is a smart jump rope. About the only thing it doesn’t do is give you the words to those songs that girls sing when they Double Dutch.

This cool upgrade to the standard jump rope costs $90(USD). Or you can just get a rope for free and start jumping. You can count out loud if you want.

[via Geekologie via Laughing Squid]

LED R/C Helicopter Writes Words on Its Blades

Posted on by

Remote-controlled helicopters can be fun to fly, but they’re not exactly easy to see in the dark. But these little R/C choppers not only light up when flying, their blades can display messages while airborne.

helicopter led 1 620x465magnify

The helicopter’s spinning blades have LEDs on them, which can be programmed to display dot-matrix text or icons which emerge while the blades spin, thanks to a persistence of vision illusion.

helicopter led 3 620x465magnify

Simply enter the text you want to display using the companion app (which appears to be Windows only), choose the animation pattern, and download the data to your helicopter. The text is designed to be legible when viewed from the ground looking up at the helicopter.

helicopter led programming 620x465magnify

The helicopter itself has 8-inch gyro-stabilized blades, and can be charged via USB. The LED R/C Helicopter is available from Brando for $39.90(USD).

It would be cool to see this same technology applied to multi-blade drones too.