Hardware + Software

Interactive showpiece

Trade show floors are a fight for attention. This one watches the aisle with LiDAR, notices when someone comes into range, and runs an LED animation to turn their head. We designed the BeagleBone Black shield behind it and wrote the firmware that drives the whole thing. The client’s product sits on top.

BeagleBone BlackCustom PCBLiDARLED animation

The challenge

A stand gets a second or two as someone walks past, and a loop running the same animation all day stops registering after the first lap. The client wanted their product to be the thing people stopped for, so the installation had to notice a passer-by and react while they were still in front of it.

Client

3devo

Team

Bob + Erwin

Role

PCB design, firmware, sensing and LED control

How we built it

01

Watching the aisle

LiDAR pointed down the walkway, picking up people as they come into range and tracking how close they get.

02

Custom shield

A BeagleBone Black shield carrying the sensor link and the LED driving, with four addressable strip outputs on screw terminals, power in with daisy-chain power out, and mode, brightness and colour controls on the board itself.

03

Firmware on the board

Custom firmware turning what the sensor sees into the animations, so the stand reacts to someone walking up rather than looping the same show all day.