Main Project Idea: Light Board or Sketching robot

I have to decide between two ideas for my final project. I like both the ideas equally and I might end up doing both but one as a self project. Both the ideas have a aesthetic element to them.

Lightboard- I was inspired to make this as my final project after I saw it in use by a professor in an online coarse that I had taken on Coursera. A light board is like a black board but without a board or chalk. The writing using colored marker on a Plexi-glass glows out because of the LEDs on the periphery of the glass. I have a drafting table with a glass-top It makes sense to use the setup to convert it to a light board.

Sketching Machine- I was reading a book on sketching-“How To Draw What You See”. It is a good idea to learn sketching but its a slow and steady process. I was thinking to myself what if I can make something that can sketch what it sees. Yes, a sketching robot. I asked Google if such a thing already exists, Spoiler- It does. But every machine I searched about were using GRBL installed on Arduino UNO and the picture to be sketched is usually uploaded as a G-Code (Exactly like a CNC machine). What I wanted to accomplish is to make a machine that sees and Identifies the objects using Open CV and after taking a snap, uses image processing to guide the stepper motors to the position mapped with pixels of the outline of the image and plot it on a A4 sheet of paper. This project might be a stretch goal so I might do it as a self project.

Reference images:

https://www.google.com/search?q=light+board&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi60OKz0qbvAhWXElkFHfRgBGQQ_AUoAnoECA8QBA&biw=1536&bih=722

https://www.google.com/search?q=writing+robots&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiHvKbG0qbvAhVPPd8KHfbKA7IQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=writing+robots&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIGCAAQCBAeOgUIABCxAzoECAAQQzoCCAA6BwgAELEDEEM6BggAEAUQHlCHI1jARWCoR2gAcAB4AIABfYgBwwuSAQM1LjmYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=0jZJYIeLL8_6_Ab2lY-QCw&bih=722&biw=1536

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3 Comments. Leave new

  • Ankit, both ideas sound great to me. I’ve always wanted to design something like a lightboard but have always been too lazy to do it. I think the frame design for the lightboard is going to be the toughest part of that project, which is why you should probably make a baseline design on Solidworks before starting construction. What material were you planning on using for the frame?

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  • Ryan Cochran
    March 7, 2021 12:25 pm

    I think both of the ideas are great and both would be super cool to do. The sketching machine would be a super cool project but would be heavy coding and electronics and would take a long time to get done. The Lightboard I think would be cool to make in any aesthetic you want and there is alot of ways you could design the frame.

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  • Brayden Shelley
    March 7, 2021 3:13 am

    I like both ideas! I’ve always thought it would be really cool to make one of the clear white boards. It would be sick to put lights in the frame so the ink lights up more like you said. I think putting some work into the design of the frame would really make it stand out and give it an overall nice vibe.

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