Dynamic Animation Cube II

Introduction

The Dynamic Animation Cube is a three dimensional light emitting diode cube that was constructed as part of a previous senior design course at the University of Central Florida. The project was sponsored by the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science under the suporvision of Dr. SamuerGroup 5 is made up of four members, three of which are students in the Electrical Engineering program at the University of Central Florida and the remaining member is a Computer Engineering student.

Undertaking an existing project for Senior Design is not the typical protocol in such a course for graduating engineering students. Group 5 members considered their options carefully before they settled on taking over the Dynamic Animation Cube. Due to the construction of the cube already being completed, Group 5 had to brainstorm possibilities for the Dynamic Animation Cube II that would warrant the use of two semesters and the hardware repercussions that would be necessary to redesign for compatibility. Possibilities included full simulated animations and multiplayer interactive games. Ultimately Group 5 decided to implement a design in which future programming would be easily implemented.

The objective of Group 5’s retrofit to the Dynamic Animation Cube was to implement a user interface in order to make the cube interactive and not just a stand-alone piece of artwork for viewing pleasure as well as to redesign necessary components to conform to this new design goal. The Dynamic Animation Cube II is capable of displaying 3-dimensional images in a way such that the rapid repeat of a command is not noticeably distracting to the human eye. The Dynamic Animation Cube II, at the discretion of the University of Central Florida’s department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, will be put on display in one of the three engineering buildings on campus for the students of the university to enjoy.

The design of the Dynamic Animation Cube II is roughly 33 inches long, 33 inches wide and 52 inches tall (including the housing and base.) The light emitting diodes are constructed in such a manner that a matrix structure with the resolution of 16(L) * 16(W) * 16(H) is utilized and structural supports implemented. The retrofitted Dynamic Animation Cube II retains the use of the 4,096 light emitting diodes that were originally assembled in the senior design lab by the previous group. The design of the cube includes housing all the way around and a base that encloses the entire structure and hardware in such a way to allow easy access in the event that repairs are required. The Dynamic Animation Cube II could be placed anywhere on campus, so all of the hardware needed to be encased within the base of the cube. The cube design includes a structural support system for the light emitting diodes that provides stress relief as well as provides the even spacing to help give the cube its shape.

Group 5 compiled a massive amount of research on microcontrollers, user controllers, structural elements, code libraries, and code languages as well as sifted through the large amount of information available on the original Dynamic Animation Cube. From this research and the actual reconstruction of the cube, Group 5 can confidently assert that the Dynamic Animation Cube II conforms to several distinct parameters in its final state. The physical cube is sized at roughly 33 inches length * 33 inches width * 52 inches height. The cube’s structure comprises of more than 4,000 light emitting diodes.