Light Brush

The Light Brush is a hand-held battery-powered LED strip controlled by an app that I built with my brother for doing long exposure photography. This device stands apart from other so-called “pixel sticks” in that it is meant to be compact and held/used like a brush. I wrote an Android app for live control of the device and to create a palette of custom “brushes” for the device to use.

I built the first proof-of-concept prototype using an ABS tube, a segment of hockey stick, and scrap parts from other projects. Once we experimented with the concept and felt it was viable, we set about refining the device. We brainstormed use cases and modeled a rough shape with modeling clay that “felt right” to hold. Then we took photos of the clay model and created a 3D CAD model, reshaping it to fit in digital representations of the electronics.

We 3D printed the model, added weights, and tested various physical manuevers with it in real-world use-case scenarios. Based on those results, we refined and re-printed the CAD model several times until we ended up at a VR-controller-like form that had minimal strain on the wrist.