BlinkM in the Energy Harvesting Playground!

Created by the Computational Design Lab at Carnegie Mellon University - team members Deren Guler, Yen-Chia Hsu, Zack Jacobson-Weaver, Tobias Sonne, and Sharon Winter created the Energy harvesting playground.  A tangible interaction playground for kids and adults to have fun together and to harvest human energy. There are four features in energy harvesting playground, each of them has different functions and components as following:

1. Self-Sufficient Power Supply While biking and seesawing, human energy can be turned into electric power by the bike wheel and the flywheel on seesaw through two motor generators. The flywheel mechanical structure keeps the wheel spining continuously. Then the power will be used to charge batteries.

2. Wheel Animation While biking and seesawing, the animation wheel is powered up and rotates . People can watch the wheel animation through a small hole.

3. BlinkM Bike Light Two blinkM LEDs are installed on the bike. Arduino changes the color of BlinkM LEDs according to the value of photoresiter when people bike.

4. Light Color Changing and Blinking First, the arduino microcontroller under the seesaw controls the color of LED strips according to the input value of the accelerometer installed on the middle of the seesaw. Second, when people bike and the tape light barrier on the bike wheel blocks the photoresister on the bike frame, arduino blinks the LED strips according to the changes of sensor value.

For more information and a video please visit: http://code.arc.cmu.edu/workinprogess/energy-harvesting-playground-2/