Back in February, I made a motion-sensitive lantern for the Lunar New Year. The idea was simple: have a lantern that appeared to be mostly plain but would reveal a design when a person moved closer to it.
The easiest form to use was a round paper lantern. I started with a 14″ white paper lantern and some markers. I then attempted to draw some snakes on it, as 2013 is the year of the snake. As I am not an artist, let’s pretend that these squiggles look like snakes.
The next part was to add some lighting. The lighting needed to change color. I decided to go with LED strips from Adafruit, as I could wrap them in the center of the lantern and have fairly uniform lighting. I had some left over pieces from a previous project and this seemed like the perfect occasion to use them.
Next, the lighting needed to respond to motion. There were a couple of sensors that would have allowed me to detect motion, but I decided on a passive infrared (PIR) sensor. Interestingly, these sensors work by detecting rapid changes in infrared radiation (including those given off by body heat).
The code for this was very straightforward. The PIR sensor sends a high signal on its output pin whenever motion is detected. Therefore, it’s as simple as polling the output pin with digitalRead() and transitioning the lights based on changes in the output pin state.
Finally, I had to find a lightweight power source. I found an Energizer power pack, which was the perfect power supply for Teensy. It even came with a mini USB adapter, which meant that I could plug it directly into the Teensy without having to solder anything. Here is the final internal assembly of the lamp!
And here is the lamp, fully assembled and running!
