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2009-02-26T07:22:25.000Z
Jason Plumb
jason@noisybox.net
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Retinal tattoo gun
https://noisybox.net/blog/2009/02/retinal_tattoo_gun
2009-02-26T07:22:25.000Z
<p>So my pal <a href="http://www.mykle.com/">Mykle</a> has done this <em>EPIC</em> event called <a href="http://www.mykle.com/lightbar/">LIGHTBAR</a> to cheer people out of their seasonal affective disorder during February in Oregon. If you can't see the victory in building a GIANT and BRIGHT bamboo-event-party-dome, by hand, in the middle of winter, then you need to be poked (with sharp bamboo).</p>
<p>A few of us from <a href="http://dorkbotpdx.org">dorkbot PDX</a> have been peripherally involved, even contributing some works.</p>
<p><img src="http://noisybox.net/blog/images/retinal_tattoo.gif" alt="retinal tattoo gun"></p>
<p>My friend <a href="http://knowhere.net/">Brian</a> and I collaborated on a light-based project dubbed the <strong>RETINAL TATTOO GUN</strong>. The concept involved a series of bright flashes intended to [temporarily] imprint iconic imagery directly into the retina with strong after-images (ghosts).</p>
<p>We had a <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/14196411@N07/3299933682/">semi-working prototype</a> up at LIGHTBAR last weekend before it <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/myklemykle/3305979165/in/set-72157613121575183/">collapsed(!!!)</a> this week. This iteration of the retinal tattoo gun was a pretty big technical failure, but it was a fun project and we have a nice foundation going forward.</p>
<p>The circuit I designed/built had a series of issues, the worst of which was some form of ground bounce or inductive jibber jabber that caused all 8 flash channels to fire when any of them fired. Turns out that yeah, it's nontrivial to sequence a bunch of disposable camera flashes.</p>
<p>The day of installation we also found out that the repurposed viewmaster switch was connected in a way that caused the flashes to trigger when the advancer jobby was directly in front of the slide...so most of the light power was dampened. Whoops, doh!</p>
<p>We hope you enjoy the above image, and we hope to have something dangerous, compelling, and electrical to mount to your face in the near future.</p>