The Circus Helps You See With Spotlight Tracking Tech Costumes #WearableWednesday #Costumes
I almost passed by this post about Ringling Brother’s new show until I figured out there was some cool tech going on behind-the-scenes. Usually someone doing lighting for a show has to know cues in order to follow the performers, but not anymore according to TechCrunch. Costumes in Out of This World are embedded with tech that allows spotlights to track performers, which is helpful with such a physical show.
In the past, there used to be a “spotlight caller”, who would name the positions of the performers so the spotlight could be moved into place. You can imagine that system would have had delay. Lorelei Owens, lighting technician, explains their new set-up.
Our spotlight tracking system uses infrared lighting to track the performers. Each performer is equipped with a beacon, which is a small black box. Essentially the spotlight tracking system takes control of the pan and tilt of the light telling it where to go, while our lighting console controls the color, the gobo, the effects telling it what to do. And they work together to follow each performer based on the blinking pattern emitted from their beacon.
Beyond the blinking costumes and colorful props, you’ll find 3D mapping projection. The circus is loving its ability to transform scenes in seconds with arch style standing elements as well as the “Disney on Ice” style floor. If you like tricks with lights, check out our Pixie CyberWig tutorial. It uses a Feather MO to WiFi synch colorful DotStar LED strips to the music and graphics running off your computer. Your hair becomes the show! It’s never too early to think about Halloween, so start tinkering!
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!