Traffic Light

Installation Art Piece
Project Overview
The intention of this piece was to create a small world that exists inside an everyday object that could easily get overlooked. The object is a traffic light which at first glance seems normal, but upon closer inspection you will notice each bulb contains a civilization of little people and each civilization reacts very differently to the external stimuli of the changing traffic light. This project exercised my modeling and rapid prototyping skills as well as some simple control electronics.

Design

The exterior of the light was modeled in SolidWorks and was 3D printed in six pieces.  The people inside are toy army figures carved, melted, and painted to represent different people.  The domes of each light were cut from large clear Christmas baubles.

The LEDs inside this light are all connected to the microcontroller which can be seen in the green-light. They are programmed to flash in the classic stop light pattern.  The whole thing is designed to be hung from a string coming out of the top box.