Developing a lightscape application (using a raspberry PI)

Abstract

As early as July 2013, the Light Blaster was an influential invention that changed the course of history for photography.[1] It has created endless possibilities for adding creative effects to photos in a quick and easy manner. However, the existing solution has no internal electronics to provide a constant source of light, thus focusing the projected image is a process of trial and error.[2] With the release of the Raspberry Pi, it is now feasible to develop a portable and cost effective solution which control a high power Light Emitting Diode (LED) to replace the strobe.

The project aims to develop a web application, which will be hosted within the Raspberry Pi, for controlling the brightness of constant light source from the high power LED via the Raspberry Pi’s General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) pins and gather optimal settings for projecting images with the Light Blaster. The other objectives of the project are to develop a Raspberry Pi’s hosted web application for tethered photography and an application to resize and print desired images to be used on the 35mm slides of the Light Blaster. The primary focus is to address the issue of Light Blaster by replacing the strobe with a controllable high power LED and create a convenient image projecting solution to add some flairs to photos. In addition, a tethered photography solution will provide access to the Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera’s primary functions, including changing of camera’s settings and releasing of shutter.

By developing these applications, it will provide great convenience for end users in photography. Thus, it will also help to grow interest in users who are new to photography.

The applications and integrated hardware were introduced successfully. However, there are some limitations such as the LED can only operate at the minimal current. Thus, more research and development would be needed to provide a better implementation.