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I built a light that reacts to radio waves [video]

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Re: I built a light that reacts to radio waves [video]

#11
I cannot find the YT video but an artist in residence did a short film with scratch-over of footage in an RF lab which tries to give a visual impression of the waves emitted by things present.

We're bathed in EMF. It's what light is, but aside from that we use electricity so much now, we're in a sea of radiation in other frequencies too.

Re: I built a light that reacts to radio waves [video]

#14

FANTASTIC!! I was just thinking about this the other day, and wondering about directionality... For example, if you had a camera facing a space, and the receiving antenna was within that space... and you were able to (somehow?) from the antennas perspective, see the "direction" the frequency was coming from.. And then map the different specific frequencies within the desired bandwidth to colors... and of course inten…

Yes it has been done: https://youtu.be/sXwDrcd1t-E?si=V75bEPMT8qGbo1wG

Re: I built a light that reacts to radio waves [video]

#15

FANTASTIC!! I was just thinking about this the other day, and wondering about directionality... For example, if you had a camera facing a space, and the receiving antenna was within that space... and you were able to (somehow?) from the antennas perspective, see the "direction" the frequency was coming from.. And then map the different specific frequencies within the desired bandwidth to colors... and of course inten…

If you buy three (or more) Phillips Hue bulps you can have them respond to motion detected by things moving around and disturbing the radio waves they use to communicate. So they must have pretty much the kind of map you want, but I dont know how easy it is to export it.

Re: I built a light that reacts to radio waves [video]

#17

FANTASTIC!! I was just thinking about this the other day, and wondering about directionality... For example, if you had a camera facing a space, and the receiving antenna was within that space... and you were able to (somehow?) from the antennas perspective, see the "direction" the frequency was coming from.. And then map the different specific frequencies within the desired bandwidth to colors... and of course inten…

> and you were able to (somehow?) from the antennas perspective, see the "direction" the frequency was coming from..

You can kind of do that quite easily at low frequencies, by measuring the phase of signals coming in from a pair of aerials. If you put two aerials a quarter of a wavelength apart and switch between them very quickly at audio rate, then you'll get a tone when there's a difference in phase. If there's no tone the two signals are exactly in phase - the two aerials are exactly the same distance from the transmitter.

If you look on some police cars you'll see a group of four aerials about 15cm apart stuck to the roof which used to be used for "Lojack" style trackers.

There are a whole bunch of circuit diagrams floating around for doing this kind of thing, with the simplest being Ye Olde 555 timer and a couple of PIN diodes!

Re: I built a light that reacts to radio waves [video]

#18
post #14

FANTASTIC!! I was just thinking about this the other day, and wondering about directionality... For example, if you had a camera facing a space, and the receiving antenna was within that space... and you were able to (somehow?) from the antennas perspective, see the "direction" the frequency was coming from.. And then map the different specific frequencies within the desired bandwidth to colors... and of course inten…

Yes it has been done: https://youtu.be/sXwDrcd1t-E?si=V75bEPMT8qGbo1wG

[deleted]

Re: I built a light that reacts to radio waves [video]

#19
post #13

His other projects are so interesting. I love this one https://rootkid.me/works/exhibit-a

Oh, that is fantastic.

What would really finish it for me, though, is if, when the button is released, the device shows a website, with URL visible, with a photo of the criminal, with added facial recognition and lookup of social media to find their identity.

What fun!

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